Kuwait has drawn up a roadmap to boost the perceptions of business index over the coming five years, together with increasing the job opportunities offered by the private sector, said Minister of Commerce and Industry and Acting Minister of State for Youth Affairs Khaled Al-Roudhan.

Al-Roudan revealed the plan on Sunday in a statement to Khaled Al-Roudhan during the panel discussion. a panel discussion on streamlining trade and investment in the region, held on the third and final day of the World Economic

Forum (WEF) on the Middle East and North Africa at the Dead Sea, Jordan.

He added that Kuwait is hard at work to bolster the non-petroleum gross domestic product (GDP) over the five years to

come, with an annual rate of 4 percent, through turning the country into a trade hub. This will be achieved via

improving the business environment; creating new economic opportunities; providing means to secure success and growth of business; and developing the relevant legislations, including trade laws, Al-Roudan told the session.

Themed “Empowering Generations into the Future,” the forum that started on Friday and opened its main session a day

later, has grouped about 1,100 public and private sector officials as well as political and business leaders from more than 50 countries. Empowering women and youth, creating jobs for the unemployed, addressing the needs of refugees and host communities and e-extremism were some of the topics discussed during the WEF sessions.

The minister added that she took part in some of the forum’s sessions and workshops, especially on preservation of the

environment, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), promoting the business scene, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. Al-Sabeeh lauded Jordan’s successful entrepreneurship experience, one of the topics to be discussed by participants in the forum.

The event offers a collaborative platform for deciding on the future of the Middle East and North Africa through public-private cooperation.