By-elections to fill Municipal Council’s vacant seats soon

By-elections to fill the Municipal Council’s five seats that became vacant when members resigned to run for parliament will take place soon, Chairman Muhalhel Al-Khaled said yesterday. He further urged members of the Cabinet and parliament to amend the elections laws in order to add new areas to their corresponding constituencies before the by-elections.

15 offers

The finance ministry’s general debt committee received 15 offers from international banks and financial establishments to take part in issuing government bonds to cover the budget deficit of $ 10 billion during the first quarter of 2017. The committee will study the offers to select the most suitable ones though the interest rates on these bonds were not set so far. Notably, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh has given the green light to the process by issuing a decision that Kuwait will borrow through issuing international bonds in foreign currencies to cover the deficit and diversify the sources of national income. According to the decision, the total value of the debts will not exceed KD 2.9 billion during the fiscal year 2016-2017. According to IMF statistics, Kuwait ranks seventh worldwide in terms of its general debt ratio compared to its GDP which was below 10.6 percent in 2015 while it was 19.4 percent in UAE, 20.6 percent in Oman, 35.8 percent in Qatar, 63.3 percent in Bahrain and only 5.8 percent in Saudi Arabia.

Governance

The Capital Market Authority (CMA) yesterday warned some companies listed on the stock exchange for not filing their reports on governance requirements, said informed sources, noting that the concerned companies had made some inquiries about governance.

Transport authority

The Public Authority for Roads and Transportation’s Chairman Soud Al-Nakki stressed that future projects will only be offered through the authority, adding that it will be responsible for qualifying bidders and offering tenders without referring to the Central Tender Committee (CTC). Nakki explained that the process will not be done randomly and that it is coordinated with the Fatwa and Legislation Department in order to be subjected to both internal monitoring and external one through the State Audit Bureau.