Privatisation seen to save sport
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 10: The parliamentary Youth and Sports Committee on Tuesday discussed its work mechanism, agenda and other issues.
Committee Chairman MP Abdullah Al-Maayouf disclosed the committee deliberated on ways to deal with the current situation of the sports sector, particularly the suspension of Kuwait’s participation in international sports events. He said the committee decided to wait for the National Assembly to vote on the recommendations related to the suspension in the next session.
He added the committee also tackled the proposed privatization of sports clubs and the decision of the Cabinet to assign Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) to handle it, indicating they will ask the Public Authority for Sports to submit a report on the decision.
He revealed there are a number of parliamentary proposals on the privatization of sports clubs, so the Minister of
Information and State Minister for Youth Affairs and officials of the Public Authority for Sports were invited to the next committee meeting.
He confirmed the committee checked the legality of inviting sporting officials, whether in clubs, unions or Kuwait Olympic Committee, to look into letters from the International Olympic Committee or the International Federation of Association Football regarding the suspension in order to uncover the truth.
Asked why not assign the Supreme Council for Privatization to handle the privatization of sports clubs; AlMaayouf clarified sports is not a government sector, rather it is a private sector and public interest association so it is not covered by the law on the privatization of government sectors.
In the meantime, Committee Rapporteur MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji criticized the Cabinet’s decision to disregard the council in the privatization of sports clubs. He believes privatization is a great step towards saving the sports sector; hence, disregarding the council in charge of privatization and its ability to study the matter at hand is unacceptable. He urged the government to allow the council to study the project and specify the period for completion of the study. He added the Parliament will carry out the task if the government fails to do so, due to the importance of its input while the council has been idle yet its members are still receiving salaries.
Moreover, the Education Committee has identified its priorities that will be discussed within the next three months. The priorities include some draft laws from the government such as those on electronic media and copyrights. The committee will also tackle other bills like intellectual property, scientific research for higher education, and Commission for Academic Accreditation.
Committee Rapporteur MP Hamoud Al-Hamdani enumerated bills lined up for discussion as follows: education for Bedouns and special groups, Public Opinion Center, educational outputs, and labor market needs.
He disclosed that at the beginning of next week, the committee will meet Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr Bader Al-Essa and officials in various educational institutions to discuss a number of issues in the educational sector.
Meanwhile, member of the Human Resources Development Committee MP Khalil Abdullah affirmed the committee has agreed to review the bill on appointment to leadership positions in order to add more stipulations; including privileges, appointment regulations, evaluation, selection of advisors, regulations for electing board of directors and councils of authorities and institutions. He said the bill is the first priority of the committee.
Furthermore, the Priorities Committee discussed priorities for the next National Assembly session in the presence of Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and State Minister for Planning and Development Hind Al-Sabeh.
Committee Rapporteur MP Ahmed Lari said there is an agreement to amend laws on the Public Authority for Handicapped Affairs (PAHA) and the juveniles which will be part of the agenda for the next session.
He stated the government has presented 43 priorities, including 13 priorities on the agenda of committees, and the rest are with the government. He added the committee is waiting for the priorities of parliamentary committees to be arranged in the next session.