Investors apply to build private hospitals: MoH

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Health’s (MoH) Acting Undersecretary Dr Mohammed AlKhashti said a committee entrusted with allocating land plots to build private hospitals is currently reviewing increasing applications filed by Kuwaiti investors to build private hospitals. Khashti added that due to the significant role the private sector plays in boosting the health sector, government land plots are abundantly available for such projects and that accepted applicants will be given the land and then allowed to construct their facilities. Khashti added MoH had already issued scores of licenses to build private clinics and medical centers. He also noted that the private medical sector provides around 20 percent of healthcare services in Kuwait.

Appointment procedures

Well-informed sources at the Civil Service Commission (CSC) said around 20,000 citizens have failed to complete their appointment procedures after they were nominated to work in various government bodies since 1999. The sources added that 9,262 of these citizens had been nominated since the beginning of 2017 and that they were asked to undergo further procedures like the attestation of their degree certificates or provide CSC with further data needed for recruitment in government bodies.

Moreover, the sources said the total number of such citizens up to the end of last year was 10,900 and that CSC is not entitled to write their basic data off, which makes them remain registered as applicants for government jobs. “The next registry period will start on December 8 and end on December 22, 2017,” the sources highlighted, noting that one of the conditions was endorsing qualification certificates through certain bodies such as the

ministry of higher education, which 299 citizens failed to do so far.

Non-profit companies

Minister of Commerce and Industry and Acting Minister of State for Youth Affairs Khaled Al-Roudhan issued a decision allowing licensing non-profit and limited liabilities companies, in addition to two companies with the same owner. The decision also included some conditions such as banning NGOs and charities from taking part in establishing such companies in general.

Private schools

Ministry of Education’s (MoE) Undersecretary Haitham Al-Athari sent applications filed by private schools requesting permissions to build third floors on their premises to the Municipality, urging it to determine the new conditions and specifications needed for such constructions. In this regard, Municipality Director Ahmed Al-Manfouhi said the municipality is currently working on amending construction regulations charters as per law number 33/2016 and the ministry will be notified once the amendments are done.

Meanwhile, educational sources said that the condition will include MoE’s prior permission and approval, that the neighborhood housing the premises is not a residential one, the school area should be at least 2,000 sq m, the premises should meet the demands of students with special needs, that the buildings should occupy a maximum of 85 percent of the total area, that the building does not exceed four floors in height, that it includes open areas for playgrounds, and finally, that classroom area should be at least 50 sq m for Arab, Indian and Pakistani schools and at least 60 m for foreign and bilingual schools.

High voltage

Well-informed sources at Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) said the total expenditure on reinforcing the high voltage electricity distribution grid in the period of 2002-2016 was KD 189.42 million and that the ministry had allocated a further KD 10 million to complete grid enhancement projects in various areas.