Mubarak Port to create over 16,000 jobs

KUWAIT: A recent economic study showed that the presence of Mubarak Port, a cargo airport and an industrial zone requires the provision of supporting logistics services, so it was suggested to build a logistics services zone over an area of 2.7 sq km on Boubyan island to serve around 8.1 million containers, which can be expanded in the future. The study also expected logistics service prices to be highly competitive with a low cost of electricity.

Furthermore, the study by the Durar team expected the zone’s revenues to reach KD 1,267,023,500, its construction cost to be KD 1,017,857,143 and the total job opportunities it will provide to be 16,109. The study also highlighted that since transportation is the lifeblood of regional and international economies, it would be highly significant to provide all types of land and marine transportation options on Boubyan Island to help turn it into a regional commercial hub. In addition, the study showed that the cargo airport would be built over an area of 6 sq km with a total cost of KD 41,787,500 and expected revenues of KD 43,920,635.

School nurses

The Ministry of Health (MOH) recently requested the finance ministry’s approval to offer a tender to provide buses for school nursing staff members for public bidding. The tender costs KD 1.46 million to provide the buses for two years starting from September.

Water reserves

Well-informed sources at the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) said as part of the ministry’s efforts to increase Kuwait’s strategic reserves of water and provide enough water supplies, a few water projects will be launched soon. The sources added that MEW finally received approval from the Civil Tenders Commission (CTC) to offer for public bidding a tender to build and maintain two concrete freshwater reservoirs with a capacity of 85 million imperial gallons each in Western Funaitees. The sources said that once all proceedings are complete, MEW will sign a contract with the winning company to execute the project within 24 months starting in Jan 2019 and ending in Jan 2021 at an estimated cost of KD 4.5 million.

Tenders canceled

Following months of correspondence with various judicial and monitoring bodies requesting the cancellation of two tenders (#260 and #261), Minister of Public Works Hossam Al-Roumi urged the CTC to cancel both tenders and added three more to bring the total number of tenders he cancelled to five 242, 243, 257, 260 and 261. Informed sources said the cancelled tenders were all for road projects. The sources added that Roumi’s letter did not mention any new reasons for requesting the cancellation despite the soundness of the procedures followed.

Appointment delayed

Dossiers of 10 senior officials at the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) are still not settled before making the final decision about merging MGRP with the Public Authority for Manpower by the beginning of the next parliamentary term in October, said informed sources. The sources warned that in anticipation of the decision about the merging process, the appointment of these officials had been delayed.

Electricity towers

The execution sector at the Public Authority for Housing Welfare officially commenced work at the Southern Abdullah Al-Mubarak project by removing seven high-voltage electricity towers without affecting the northern region’s power supply, said informed sources, noting that the project includes 3,260 housing units.