Foreign Ownership Rules in Kuwait: What the Law Actually Says

The baseline: Commercial Law Articles 23 and 24

Article 23 of the Kuwait Commercial Law restricts engagement in trade in Kuwait to those who meet the law's conditions, and Article 24 prevents a foreign company from establishing a branch in Kuwait or engaging in business there except through a Kuwaiti agent in the cases it defines. Both articles are available in full, in Arabic, in this site's Kuwait law library — these are verified texts you can read directly.

In practice, this baseline is why the ordinary MOCI incorporation route has historically involved Kuwaiti majority participation. Any structure claiming to bypass these rules must point to a specific statutory exception.

The exception: Law No. 116 of 2013

The Law on the Promotion of Direct Investment in the State of Kuwait (Law No. 116 of 2013) established KDIPA and created a licensing route under which investment projects may be approved with higher — potentially full — foreign ownership, subject to the law's conditions, its executive regulations and a negative list of excluded activities.

Precision matters here: the law, its executive regulations and the negative list (Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2015) are listed on KDIPA's official law-and-decisions page, but none of these instruments has yet been incorporated into this site's law library or reviewed line by line by our lawyers. We therefore do not quote their articles. The existence of the route is official; the detailed conditions must be checked against the current texts before any decision.

The negative list

Cabinet Decision No. 75 of 2015 issues the negative list of activities excluded from the direct investment regime. The document is linked from KDIPA's website. Its text and any later amendments have not yet been read and signed off, so we do not summarize its contents here; an activity-by-activity check against the current list is part of any serious entry assessment.

What this means in practice

Three practical conclusions follow. First, never assume full ownership is available; it is a licensing outcome, not a default. Second, the answer depends on your exact activity classification, so the analysis starts from what you will actually do in Kuwait. Third, because key instruments are still under review, advice should be grounded in the current official texts, not in secondary summaries — including this one.

Professional assistance

Fahad Al-Haddad Law Firm & Legal Consultants reviews proposed activities against the Commercial Law, the direct investment framework and the current negative list, and advises on the ownership structure each route realistically allows.

Frequently asked questions