Commercial Concealment Law
When we serve other economies with our own hands, no one defends commercial concealment, nor does anyone object to holding violators accountable. However, the problem begins when the handling of individual violations transforms into a punitive policy that targets an entire market.
Do we truly want to reform the economy and combat commercial concealment, or are we seeking the easiest solutions through further bans, penalties, and restrictions? It is impossible to enforce a law of this magnitude and punitive mindset in an economic environment already suffering from stagnation, high operating costs, bureaucratic complexity, and weak market attractiveness compared to neighboring countries.
The idea of punishing an entire market because of violations committed by one or two individuals is not economic reform; it is collective punishment that thousands of traders, business owners, and their employees will pay for. In the coming days and weeks, we will witness many businesses closing their doors or relocating their operations and capital to neighboring countries that open their doors to investors, offering them facilitations, flexibility, and stability.
Here lies the paradox: We should be the beneficiaries of these projects and funds, not offering them on a silver platter to competing economies. Every project that leaves Kuwait means capital leaving, along with jobs, spending, rents, fees, purchases, and economic activity whose benefits transfer to another country. Worse still, we are doing this with our own hands, yet we talk about diversifying income sources and transforming Kuwait into a financial and commercial hub. How can we aspire to become a commercial center when we are erecting more barriers for investors?
If we want to genuinely eradicate commercial concealment, the solution is not complex: Grant foreign investors the right to own 100% of the commercial license without the need for a nominal Kuwaiti partner, under clear regulations, and hold them directly accountable to the state for their activities and obligations.
Furthermore, grant them the right to own real estate linked to their investment, under a carefully considered legal framework, so that they feel Kuwait is a country where they can invest, settle, and expand, rather than merely a temporary stop they leave at the first legislation that threatens their interests. What logic tells an investor: "Come with your money, open your project, hire, pay rents and fees, and stimulate the market," and then place a system of restrictions before them while expecting them to stay? The world has changed, the region has changed, and Gulf competition for investors has become fierce. Today’s investor has many options, and capital will not wait for us to finish with bureaucracy and legislative experiments. Capital does not carry an emotional passport; if it feels the environment is hostile, it will pack its funds and leave.
We need laws that attract capital, not laws that drive it toward competitors. Combat concealment, and tighten penalties on the actual violator, but do not turn the entire economy into a defendant. Because the continuation of this mindset simply means we are creating an environment hostile to investment, while neighboring countries wait to receive the projects we are losing. Do not be surprised tomorrow when we see a shop closing here, a company relocating from Kuwait, and a project opening its doors in a neighboring country. At that point, our economy will be the loser, the competitor will be the beneficiary, and we will discover too late that some of our laws have done more to export investment than to combat concealment.
