By Mohammad Kamal KUWAIT, April 25 (KUNA) -- Kuwait's industrial sector is facing major hurdles preventing it from playing its aspired role in the national economy and from being a major source of revenue for the state budget, industrialists warned, urging the government to heed the root causes of the problems to help materialize His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah's vision to turn Kuwait into a regional economic hub.

"Among the major problems that face the industrial sector in Kuwait are the lack of storage spaces, plots of lands allocated for industrial purposes and high rents," Abdul Jaleel Boland, a consultant to Kuwait-based Al-Ahleia Switchgear Company, told KUNA.

Unfortunately, he pointed out that there are many plots of land in the industrial zones that have been granted to unserious investors.

"Nearly 50 percent of the plots of lands in Sabahan industrial zone are not used. The government has to intervene and withdraw these plots of land and redistribute them to serious investors," Boland said.

Boland noted that many countries in the world depend heavily on small enterprises which feed the medium and large ones.

"We need to apply the best practiced examples in this regard in Kuwait." He went on to say that "the obstacles facing the industrial sector include Kuwaitis' reluctance to join the private industrial sector due to the unmatchable privileges offered to public servants." He laid it bare that Kuwaiti industrial investors can't pay similar salaries or offer privileges to attract Kuwaiti employees "Such a move would lead to a remarkable rise in the production cost and eventually the price of their products which would downsize the competitiveness of the Kuwaiti products." "There are other problems facing the industry, including Kuwait's limited market and long and time-wasting government bureaucracy, dumping practices importers of many products such as aluminum, copper, iron, all materials used in manufacturing electrical panels." He underlined the need for a frank and serious dialogue between the competent authorities in the state, the federation of chambers of commerce and industry, companies, investors and young entrepreneurs to find solutions and mechanisms to overcome these obstacles.

For his part, Industrial expert Adel Al-Ghanim said the Kuwaiti industrial sector suffers from the lack of skilled labor, red tape and small market.

He noted that the smallness of the market raise the cost of the production.

"Kuwait Industrial sector has nearly two million consumers, while in a neighboring state it has about 16 million," Al-Ghanim told KUNA. He complained about the meager government support to the industrial sector.

"Our neighboring countries are offer generous support to their industrial sector whereas the support in Kuwait is very limited because the yield of industrial production is so small." He called for serious solutions to the problems facing the industrial sector through allocating new plots of lands for industrialists and ease procedures for issuing licenses. In an interview with KUNA, industrial investor Fawzi Al-Dosari echoed complaints about the scarcity of land and protective government measures as well as the bureaucracy.

Dosari called for real support to young industrialists and provide them with all they need.

He urged the government to stop taking unstudied decisions that have grave impacts on the industrial sector.

Meanwhile, investor Hamad Al-Muttairi noted that Kuwait industrial products are not marketed well.

"Our problem is the failure to promote the products of Kuwaiti factories as many neighboring Gulf countries do," he told KUNA.

He underscored the importance of launching studied campaigns to promote the Kuwaiti products at home and abroad.

He applauded the efforts exerted by the Public Authority for Industry in this regard.

"The Kuwaiti products are not of lower quality than any of in the Gulf countries, the only difference is the price due to the high production costs in Kuwait," he concluded.