Public debt bonds
Central Bank of Kuwait is scheduled to close the issue of its seven-year public debt bonds with a total value of KD 100 million. Meanwhile, deputy PM and Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh stressed that Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA)’s net reserves were KD 32.84 billion in three years from March 31, 2014 until March 31, 2017. Saleh also pointed out that he has authorized KIA’s managing director to withdraw from and transfer funds to the reserves account.
Reqqa sewage plant
MPW’s Assistant Undersecretary for Hygienic engineering Abdul Mohsen AlEnezi said the Reqqa sewage plant will be handed over for investment according to the PPP system by the beginning of next year, when it would be removed and all sewage lines would be transferred to the new southern plant.
Appointing expats
MP Abdullah Fahad Al-Enezi urged the government to follow wisely well-studied procedures concerning appointing expats in the government sector. Enezi also stressed that the government has been blundering for many years about Kuwait’s demography and appointing expats in the government sector, leaving long queues of Kuwaiti youth awaiting employment. He added that the measures should be scientifically studied to avoid any damage to the national economy and at the same time protect Kuwait’s image before international organizations.
“Both the government and the parliament should cooperate to limit appointing expats in jobs that cannot be done by Kuwaitis,” he added, calling for stopping random expat recruitment, avoiding wasta and favoritism, and at the same time, protecting the rights of expats who have served Kuwait for decades and contributed to its development. He also warned of some calls to collectively punish expats.
Enezi expressed amazement at the number of ads published in various Arab countries’ media for hiring professors to work at Kuwait University and PAAET, or as highlypaid advisors, while Kuwaitis holding the same qualifications and more experience are still unemployed. “Calls to prioritize appointing citizens are not racist nor against human rights,” he stressed, noting that the same policies are followed worldwide and that the parliament should prioritize citizens, then stateless people born and raised in Kuwait, then GCC nationals and finally Arab expats.
Insulting Kuwaitis?
Kuwait lawyer Mejbel Al-Shereikah filed a case with the Egyptian Public Prosecution against an Egyptian citizen named Ashraf Abolela, who used to teach in Kuwait, accusing him of insulting Kuwaitis. Shereikah added that he would file another case accusing Abolela of selling exam papers to his students while teaching in Kuwait, before he was expelled around two years ago. He then founded a so-called ‘Expat Teachers Association’, which urged expat teachers to sue Kuwait in international courts.