Govt support of private sector unhindered: Official
KUWAIT: The government is wholly committed to financially supporting Kuwaitis who choose to work in the private sector, said Secretary General of Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) Fawzi Al-Majdali, negating reports claiming a rollback in that support.
He indicated in a press statement that the “financial and economic declaration” he talked about two weeks ago aimed at channeling that support to those who really deserve it and to eradicate bogus employment in the private sector which is practiced by those who seek to gain that support unjustly and unfairly.
The declaration document stipulates increasing the amount of the support for those who choose to work in employment fields rarely considered by Kuwaiti job seekers, Majdali told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). He noted that the declaration sets well-defined parameters for government financial support of citizens seeking private sector employment with the ultimate goal of streamlining the marketplace and boosting its capabilities.
Overall, the MGRP wishes to encourage societal economic growth and prosperity by providing a thorough understanding to the public as to the available advantages of private sector employment, said Majdali. He further affirmed that the government stands strongly behind young entrepreneurs dedicated to carving out a niche for themselves in the highly competitive private sector.
It was originally Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Acting Oil Minister Anas Al-Saleh who made an announcement two weeks ago about the declaration for financial and economic reform, which was endorsed by the cabinet and the political leadership.
A newspaper had reported yesterday that MGRP rejects a governmental plan to reduce the value of the national labor support allowance as recommended by the government’s economic reform plan. Al-Qabas quoted MGRP sources who said that reducing allowances paid to Kuwaitis in the private sector would be ‘taking a step backwards,’ noting that the government would be, thus, pulling down what it had built over 16 years when the law was adopted to encourage citizens work for the private sector. “The total sum to be annually saved by such a step would not exceed KD 62 million out of KD 550 million annually paid to 54,000 citizens,” the sources added. In another concern, the sources said that MGRP was currently of retrieving over KD 35 million paid to hundreds of citizens who currently work for the Ministry of Education (MOE) and still receive MGRP allowance because they used to work for the private sector before being recruited with MOE.