The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) announced on Thursday that had signed an initial agreement to provide $273m in funds for two projects in Bahrain.
The state-run fund will provide funding for the expansion and upgrading of Bahrain’s electricity network, with the aim of reducing power outages and facilitate the linking of the network to the GCC wide grid, Nawaf Al Mehmel, legal advisor and head of KFAED’s delegation, said.
The project is scheduled to run for three years, with its total cost running to $800m. Funding is to be split between the GCC members. Kuwait’s share of this will be $250m, he explained.
The second project to be funded is the construction of facilities for people with disabilities. This will be built over the next two years at a total cost of $23m. It will be totally covered by a grant from Kuwait, Al Mehmel said.
In 2011, the GCC ministerial council approved the allocation of $10bn to Bahrain, along with a further $10bn to Oman, so as to finance development projects in the two countries over the next 10 years.