Kuwaiti government to privatise more services
Undersecretary of the Ministry of Communication, Abdulaziz Al-Osaimi said that the ministry intends to privatise more of its services, highlighting the potential benefits of privatisation for the postal sector, which is experiencing many problems, reported Al-Rai. Al-Osaimi said that the ministry has submitted a number of reports to the Cabinet regarding this matter, outlining a number of measures intended to improve these services. He added that ministry specialists are currently working on a comprehensive study analysing how best to administer the postal sector and evaluating the various private companies expected to submit tenders for contracts to provide these services, further stating that freeing the postal sector from government bureaucracy and intervention could only be of benefit in the long term. Regarding the 101 exchange service, Al-Osaimi said it would never be successful unless privatised, hinting that the government is seeking more private sector involvement in the provision of various services in order to increase efficiency.
Lawmakers seek new ‘public demand’
KUWAIT: Now that lawmakers lost any and all hopes in securing the government’s ‘yes’ to write off citizens’ loans, many MPs have now diverted their attention to another ‘public demand’ to raise in the parliament in an attempt to regain public support. Parliamentary officials however speculated that all those MPs who favoured writing the loans off, would now most likely continue pursuing the same demand to garner in public support of the voters. They said that those MPs would definitely pursue alternative solutions, such as one proposed by the Constitutional Islamic Movement suggesting a grant of KD1,000 per citizen. On the other hand, those against the motion said that it would be unfair to other citizens who had not taken any loans, and therefore they would readily second any alternative motion that would help create justice and fairness to all. The officials also speculated that the government would most likely turn down all such alternative motions except a probable bid to authorize a KD50 raise for all citizens, by February end.
Minister forms committee
KUWAIT: The Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid formed a committee to safeguard the rights of all expatriates in the private sector. He said that he would chair the committee with the coordination of the undersecretaries at the Ministry of Social Affairs and labour, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Commerce along with the general directors of the municipality and the chamber of commerce. He also said that the committee would be involved in solving all the problems of housemaids and domestic labourers in accordance to the jurisdictions of each of those committees’ authority members and to take necessary actions to protect the rights of labourers in both the private sector as well as those of domestic labourers in an attempt to safeguard Kuwait’s reputation before the international committee.
