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This study examines the industrial geography of Kuwait and its role in the development of the nation as an oil rich,. Arab, Moslem, independent state in a desert environment, with a small area and a rapidly growing, population, investing heavily in modern manufacturing and occupying a strategic position at the head of the Gulf of Arabia. Kuwait has several characteristics, the study of which will make an important contribution to industrial geography and especially to an understanding of the nature and impact of modern large scale industrial development in a region which is a major source of the oil and gas needed by the rest of the world. In this way the study has global significance. A more narrow aim of the study is to contribute to an understanding of the part played by manufacturing industry in the urban and economic geography of small states in the Arab world, and in particular those in the oil rich Arab countries. In the oil rich countries it is taking on a particular character related to the situation where, unlike the rest of the developing world, they are capital rich but have limited labour resources. Kuwait is interesting because the government recognized the need for manufacturing development as early as 1952 and considerable success has already been achieved through the promotion of industrial development ever since. The Government of Kuwait has committed itself to encouraging and developing the industrial sector within the framework of its overall development plans. The government has also aimed at diversifying the sources of its national revenue so that it will not be solely dependent on the national oil resources. It has therefore taken a number of important initiatives in this regard, among which is the establishment of industrial areas and providing them with the necessary vital utilities for the attraction and accommodation of industries. The heavy dependence on oil, the limited opportunities in agriculture, and the dependence of trade and services on the export base of oil, made manufacturing the single most important avenue for widening the Kuwaiti economic base and reducing the risk and vulnerabilities associated with specialization in oil production and export and the heavy dependence on investments abroad.