Abstract

This study is set out to explore employees and management attitude towards privatization in Kuwait. To a chive this objective, a questionnaire has been distributed to employees and managers of 21 privatized companies and they were requested to state to what extent they agree or disagree with different aspects of privatization. The results of analyzing their responses revealed that a successful privatization program in Kuwait should be restricted to outsourcing, deregulation and joint venture partnerships forms of privatization. The analysis also showed that privatization would confront difficulties due to the absence of competition and profit incentives in the public sector enterprises, some projects entail social responsibility that cannot be attained by the private sector, privatization might result in employees' lay-off and fear of extensive government regulation. The results of the analysis further affirmed that privatization would be restricted to light and moderate industries, communication and luxury goods and services and the government should continue being responsible for some strategic enterprises such as education, electricity, health and water. Finally, the results of the analysis illustrated that effective privatization can result in improvement in the quality of goods and services, development in foreign economic relations with Kuwait, improvement in investment climate in Kuwait, increase in competition and ultimately stimulate economic growth.

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