Replacing public sector expats ‘too difficult’

Health, education ministries pose real challenge to Kuwaitisation drive

Kuwait is not in a position to replace all the expatriates working in the public sector due to the shortage of potential Kuwaiti employees, the President of the Civil Services Commission has said.

Ahmad Jassar said that 78,317 foreigners held positions in the government sector, mainly in the education and health ministries.

“Around 76 per cent of the foreigners in the public sectors are employed by the ministries of education and health,” he said. “The health ministry has 33,303 expatriates and the education ministry has 26,433. We have regularly informed the competent committees that replacing them would not be possible for the time being,” Jassar was quoted by Kuwaiti daily Al Rai as saying yesterday.

Kuwait, where foreigners make up 70 per cent of the population, has embarked on a massive drive to address the demographic imbalance, reduce reliance on foreigners, and boost the employment of its nationals.

The drive has been closely monitored by several lawmakers who have been pushing for a genuine “Kuwaitisation”.

Not enough qualified

However, Jassar said there were not enough qualified Kuwaitis to replace the foreigners in the public sector.

Figures put the number of adult people without jobs in Kuwait at 12,000.

“We have 8,158 Kuwaitis who do not have the necessary advanced academic qualifications and 3,479 who have no degrees,” he said. “There are also 3,828 Kuwaitis who have only the middle school certificate and 851 who hold high school certificates.”

He added the situation meant any drive to replace foreigners, especially in the health and education sectors, would be highly difficult.

“We study the requests by all public departments to appoint employees and we assess the availability of Kuwaiti citizens,” Jassar said.

Recent statistics say 345,100 Kuwaitis work in the public sector, representing 76.8 per cent of the Kuwaiti labour force.