KUWAIT is planning to issue tenders for highways costing about KD1.7 billion ($6.2 billion) over the next three-and-a-half years as it seeks to become a commercial and financial hub in the region.

The Ministry of Public Works is currently designing highways involving a total length of 550 km.

One of the country’s biggest infrastructure projects is the Jaber Al-Ahmad bridge, which will link the mainland to Subiya in the north. Parliament in February last year approved a KD30.8 billion ($111.3 billion), four-year development plan that aims to attracts international investors and includes projects to increase oil and gas production and construction of a railway network, cities and a port on Bubiyan Island.