MP slams minister over ‘marginal state’ comment Airport passengers’ capacity up by 5 percent
MP Riyadh Al-Adasani stressed that His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlSabah should hold his Cabinet members accountable for their responsibilities and to respect diplomatic norms when making statements affecting foreign relations. “We do appreciate our historic relations with Egypt, but we do not accept Justice Minister Dr Faleh Al-Azab making a televised statement in which he said that without Egypt, [Kuwait] would be a marginal country,” he said. The lawmaker further threatened to make the minister himself ‘a marginal one’, likely hinting to filing a grilling motion against him, unless he rectifies his statements.
Chairman of the parliament’s budgets and final statements committee MP Adnan Abdulsamad said that the committee met the finance minister to discuss the ministry’s final statement for the fiscal year 2015-2016 and the State Audit Bureau’s related reports. Abdulsamad stressed that the committee recommended acting on the Audit Bureau’s remarks. He also noted that due care should be given to assessing the fees to be collected for utilizing public lands, especially since KD 6 million has not so far been collected.
Kuwait International Airport’s civil aviation deputy manager for aviation safety affairs Emad Al-Jolowi said air traffic through Kuwait airport increased in 2016 and that 11,762,305 passengers used the airport; a five percent increase compared to the previous year. Jolowi added that the total number of flights was 104,172, a 2 percent increase, and that arriving passengers totaled 922,507 while 839,798 departed. He explained that the total number of inbound flights was 52,239, while outbound ones were 51,933.
Five million loaves
Production engineer at Kuwait Flour Mills and Bakeries Co Farah Al-Horaiti said that the bakeries produce five million loaves of white and brown bread daily with an average weight of 95 gm and a diameter of 18.5 cm per loaf. Horaiti added that the company’s bakeries mainly produce bread, while other products such as buns are produced in the main factory in Subhan and distributed to sale outlets.
Logistic area
Kuwait Municipality intends to remove Sharq industrial area from its current location and turn it into a logistics area to serve the financial and commercial hub the municipality intends to build in Mirqab. Separately, the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) urged the municipality to remove a high-voltage tower from AlZour plant to Jabriya W plant.
Solar power
The Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) extended the deadline set to submit bids for a tender to build Al-Abdaliya Solar Power Plant for another month, ie from Jan 4 to Feb 5. The Abdaliya Integrated Solar Combined Cycle Project was submitted to the Higher Committee for Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) Projects as part of an unsolicited proposal. The project will develop the first solar thermal power plant in Kuwait. Notably, seven consortiums from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Japan, France, Korea, US, UK and Germany have so far qualified for the project and the authority is still studying their offers.
Minister of Public Works Abdul Rahamn Al-Mutawa said that an integrated plan to resolve the problem of loose gravel along various roads will be submitted to the parliament soon and that the plan would include using a new asphalt mixture and more control over contractors. In other news, the ministry’s assistant undersecretary Ahmed Al-Hassan said KD 253 million of the current fiscal year’s budget of KD 383 million had been spent so far. “This is 66 percent of the budget,” he underlined, noting that a press conference will be held next week to explain plans on spending the balance as well next year’s assessed budget of KD 622 million.