Govt work plan submitted to Cabinet

KUWAIT: Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hind Al-Subaih said the government’s work plan has been submitted to the Cabinet, but has not been approved, pending hearing ministers’ remarks about it. Subaih explained that the bodies subject to the ministry of state for economic affairs so far include the Supreme Planning and Development Council, the Central Statistical Bureau, the privatization apparatus, the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

Clean Fuel Project

The Supreme Planning and Development Council’s assistant secretary general for planning and follow up Bader Al-Refa’e said that 75 percent of the Clean Fuel Project was completed by the end of November. During a field visit he made along with the planning and follow up team to the project site escorted by KNPC’s deputy CEO for projects Abdullah Fahhad Al-Ajmi, Refa’e said the project’s capacity will be around 800 barrels per day and that it will provide many job opportunities for Kuwaitis. Refa’e added that the project’s total budget is KD 4.7 billion, of which KD 2.1 billion has so far been spent. The project is expected to be completed by mid-2018. After agreeing with Kuwait Airways Company’s (KAC) board of directors concerning KAC pilots who had been transferred to work in other government bodies and who had not commenced those jobs, the parliament’s financial and economic affairs committee decided contacting the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to ask them to consider them as still working for KAC. Committee member MP Ahmad Nabil Al-Fadhl said that the committee followed certain methodology on dealing with the issue with the pilots and administrative staff. Fadhl added that the problem lies in legislations and lack of vision. He added that the situation has now changed at KAC and that the pilots had every right to return to their jobs.

Water pipes

The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) has completed the execution of five contracts related to a project to replace asbestos water pipes with ductile ones in various areas including Sabah Al-Salem, east Hawally, East Ahmadi, Rumaithiya and Dahr. MEW has so far spent around KD 28 million on this project to replace the over 25-year-old pipes that had been cracking and leaking.

Automation

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labors’ (MSAL) Undersecretary Dr Mutar Al-Mutairi said the first phase of automation of the cooperative sector will be launched on Jan 2 involving a shareholders’ registry through the cooperation portal. Mutairi added that all co-ops had been informed to start automating shareholders’ registry systems after linking them with MSAL.