Oil has made Kuwait rich, so why has its AV industry been struggling? Paul Milligan looks at the future possibilities for AV companies in the Arab country.
For a country with a population the same size as Armenia or Moldova, you would not expect to see Kuwait sitting in a list of the top five richest countries in the world, but it is.
And the reason for this immense wealth? Oil.
Since the discovery of oil in the late 1930s it has become the largest exporter of oil in the Persian Gulf. And the currency of Kuwait, the dinar, has been the highest-valued currency in the world in the last few years.
Despite this enormous wealth the country has had its fair share of problems. It was invaded in 1990 by neighbouring Iraq, and although Iraq was eventually defeated in 1991, Kuwait suffered huge damage. More than 700 oil wells were set on ? re as part of a scorched earth policy by a retreating Iraqi military.
The country was then involved in more turmoil when it was used as a base for foreign troops in 2003 to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. After Saddam was ousted Kuwait was set to boom, but was then hit by the global financial crisis of 2008-9.
In the full article Paul talks to integrators and consultants involved in projects within Kuwait to find out if there is really is the possibility of a mature AV market in this oil-rich country.
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