Kuwait Economic Zones Win for Happold Consulting Team
(PRWEB UK) 10 August 2013 -- Happold Consulting, the strategic management consultancy arm of Buro Happold, working in partnership with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), Gulf Consult and DLA Piper, has won a prestigious 12 month appointment to support development of three Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the state of Kuwait.
In its first project for the Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau (KFIB), Happold Consulting is charged with creating an economic framework and functional plan to help KFIB develop three new SEZ sites to their maximum potential.
The commission involves development of a competitive and best practice database, a baseline study of Kuwaiti and regional economic trends and development of a detailed decision-making framework that will enable KFIB to establish a range of economic, financial, regulatory and institutional approaches to delivering the Zones. Happold Consulting will also feed into development planning and implementation.
Dr Jim Coleman, Head of Economics at Happold Consulting, said “This is a very exciting project for us. As a key part of the SOM-led team, we look forward to supporting KFIB in setting out a robust strategy for the viable, long term development of special economic zones in Kuwait.
“The twin challenges of promoting economic diversification and enhancing national competiveness play to our team’s strengths and we commit to providing a highly practical, evidence-based strategy for all the stakeholders involved.”
KFIB was launched in 2001 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the State of Kuwait, to implement Law No. 8 Regulating Direct Foreign Investment. KFIB comprises three departments: Promotion, Information and Communication; Studies and Project Evaluation; and Investor Services. The three sites within the study will be the first Special Economic Zones under the jurisdiction of KFIB.
An SEZ is a demarcated region or site that is designed to focus on export-orientated industrial activity and provide employment. SEZs are sometimes exempt from national laws and regulation regarding taxation, quotas, labour laws and other restrictive laws in order to make the goods manufactured in the SEZ globally competitive.
Notes to Editors
Happold Consulting
Press office and practice information at http://www.happoldconsulting.com/.
For more information, please contact: Gill Sincock: Corporate Communications Manager
Tel +44 (0)1225 320600
Email: gill(dot)sincock(at)burohappold(dot)com
Happold Consulting is a strategic management consultancy operating internationally. We undertake detailed analysis of diverse places, whether mature urban centres or rapidly growing, transition economies, allowing us to produce intimate and accurate assessments of their economic, physical and social dynamics. We determine effective solutions to complex socio-economic problems and infrastructure needs. We work at the highest levels with national and municipal governments, private international business, civil society, global institutions and leading charitable foundations.
Happold Consulting has been instrumental in the creation of Harvard University’s Working Group for Sustainable Cities. Happold also has long standing relationships with University College London (Bartlett School, the Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience, and the Development Planning Unit); Cambridge University (Energy Efficient Cities Initiative); London School of Economic & Political Science (LSE Cities Program); Columbia University (School of International & Public Affairs and Graduate School of Architecture); King’s College London (Department of Geography); Westminster University (Department of Architecture and the Built Environment); and, Beijing’s Tsighua University (Centre for Earth Systems Science).
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Gill Sincock, Happold Consulting, http://www.happoldconsulting.com, +44 (0)1225 320600, [email protected]
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