No plans to follow Gulf states in hiking fuel prices

Officials monitor developments after GCC states hiked charges 17,000 private sector jobs for Kuwaitis

KUWAIT: Kuwait has no plans to follow in other GCC states’ footsteps and hike fuel prices again, a government official said. A governmental subsidies committee has not discussed increasing fuel prices as it continues to monitor oil market developments and discuss the best ways to deal with changes, said the official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Further, the official said that the Cabinet reviewed the decisions made in four Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to increase fuel prices, but did not take similar steps.

“The Cabinet only requested conducting needed studies to assess the local situation to make the right decision,” he said, pointing out that reports were made by relevant oil officials about the reasons behind the price hikes in UAE, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia, which came after implementing value added tax (VAT) in UAE and Saudi Arabia, noting that the increase was the second in the UAE and Oman, and the fourth in Qatar since four Arab states boycotted it seven months back.

Notably, fuel prices have gone up by 127 percent in Saudi Arabia and 3.9-4.2 percent in the UAE following a 20 percent increase in 2017. Oman increased fuel prices by 2-7 percent and Qatar increased it by 2.8-3 percent. The last time Kuwait raised fuel prices was in September 2016.

Hiring citizens

Secretary General of the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) Fauzi Al-Majdali hailed the role played by the program in achieving national goals and supporting the national economy through supporting entrepreneurship, replacing expats with national labor and making the private sector attract more nationals.

Speaking after a meeting with the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s industrial committee to discuss the new ratios of hiring nationals in entrepreneurs’ projects, Majadli stressed that this will provide 17,000 private sector job opportunities for Kuwaiti youth. He added that companies will have to pay extra annual fees per work permit issued to nonKuwaitis above the maximum number allowed.

Majdali added that the national labor support act authorized the Cabinet to review the ratios and penalties every two years, and that since the last review was in 2014 to provide 10,000 job opportunities, MGRP prepared some amendments to decision number 1028/2014 with the aim of appointing more citizens in the private and non-governmental sectors. He added that a study focused on achieving balance between demand and supply related to national labor, assessing the demand through the assessment of the educational system in the next five years.

Majdali added that the project on national labor ratios and the justification of the sought increase had been discussed with the manpower authority’s board of directors headed by Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind AlSabeeh. He added that the new decision focused on economic activities that will attract nationals.

Housing projects

The Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) announced completing the southern Abdullah AlMubarak project infrastructure’s design and outline, and will start handing them over from Sunday. The authority’s deputy director for planning and design Nasser Khoraibut said that the project includes 3,260 400square-meter housing units, in addition to blocks for public services to meet the area’s demands and needs.

Meanwhile, the housing authority’s official spokesperson Ibrahim Al-Nashi said the Chinese contractor of the second contract in the South Mutlaa project requested 11 infrastructure design adjustments, but the requests were rejected because they would affect the entire city’s grids. He added that several meetings were held with the contractor to discuss the requests and that the discussion ended by mandating the contractor to stick to the original plans.