As a protest against their transfer from their work centers to new locations, hygiene inspectors at the municipality's branches have called a sit-in. Al-Rai learned from its sources in the Kuwait Municipality that the Minister of State for Municipal Affairs and Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Dr. Rana Al-Faris, said the decision was in line with the work requirements, while finding a solution to the inspectors’ demands in line with the decisions of the Civil Service Commission.

Sources confirmed that the decision is aimed at reorganizing the work mechanism, specifically that transfer decisions will be made with the same job title and grade. As part of the decision, remote area allowances will not be disbursed to all recipients in order to change work centers.

Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of Social Affairs and Community Development Fahd Al- Shariaan issued a Ministerial Resolution No. 139 of 2022, the executive regulations of Law No. 22 of 2014 regarding private nurseries, which included a set of rules and obligations of the license application, the objectives of nurseries, the services they provide, and the activities that are permitted and forbidden, reports Al- Qabas daily.

According to the decision, the third article allows individuals, public and private institutions, companies, public benefit associations, or any business entity whose nature of work or the conditions of its employees require the existence of a nursery, to apply for a license to establish the nursery in accordance with the provisions of the law. Article 30 stipulates that the value of fees should not exceed 1800 dinars per child for the academic year at a monthly premium of 200 dinars, and that the Ministry sets fees for nurseries in coordination with the concerned authorities, taking into account the type of services and activities provided.

Forbids
Article 4 forbids the issuance of several licenses to the licensee of a nursery, with the permissibility of opening one or more branches with the same name as the nursery, while Article 8 prohibits assigning the license to others without the written approval of the Ministry. In order to obtain the license, according to Article 12, the applicant must be a Kuwaiti, hold a diploma or must be an university graduate and not work in a government or private entity.

The decision gives one month to study the license application through a specialized committee, after submitting it to the competent department, with a maximum limit of two months from the date of submitting the application. The license is issued according to Article 16 for a period of 5 years, and the license holder must review the Ministry at least 4 months before its expiry.

In Article 22 of Chapter Six, stipulates that the administrative and supervisory staff working in the nursery should be female only, for the positions of “house director, supervisor, assistant superintendent, secretary.” It also stipulates that the director of the nursery be a university graduate in the educational field or a diploma holder with experience of not less than 5 years. Article 23 defines the supervision of the children in its various states.

The senior management of Kuwait Municipality has reiterated the need to implement resolution number 215 of 2009 on limiting the working hours of shops located in private residential areas until 12:00 midnight maximum; except the central markets and pharmacies, reports Al-Rai daily quoting sources from the Municipality.

Sources said the approval of the Ministry of Interior must be obtained for exemption requests. Sources revealed the concerned department in the Municipality received several complaints about the decision, but this is beyond its jurisdiction. Sources clarified that the Cabinet assigned such task to the Interior Ministry in 2007. Sources added one of the most important proposals that require the approval of the ministry is to allow some establishments to operate online after the specified working hours.

According to Forbes Middle East, eight Kuwaiti family businesses made the list of the "Top 100 Arab Family Businesses" on Wednesday.

In order to create its annual rankings, Forbes Middle East considers the company's size and value, its performance and activity in the previous year, its diversity by industry and geography, its age and legacy, as well as the number of employees.

The eight companies from Kuwait include Al-Ghanim Industries, Al-Shaya Group, Morad Yousuf Behbehani Group, Al-Sayer Holding, Bukhamseen Holding Group, Al-Mulla Group, Marafie group and Boodai Group.

The Saudi family business sector dominated the ranking, with 37 companies, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 25, and Kuwait with eight.

Government is aiming to review the fees for all services provided by the state to citizens and expatriates in its various ministries and institutions. Government is planning to differentiate the fees for government services provided between citizens and expatriates, according to the type of service, local Arabic daily Al-Rai reported.

 According to recent statistics, the number of Kuwaitis represents about 31 percent of the total population compared to 69 percent for non-Kuwaitis. Government services are mostly provided with the same fees for citizens and expatriates, while studies confirm the possibility that these fees can be different for Kuwaitis and for residents, report added.

Various ministries and government bodies are working on preparing detailed regulations for the services they provide and their fees, as the Ministry of Finance requested the classification of these services and determine the type of beneficiaries among citizens, resident expatriates or visitors, and so on, in preparation for a comprehensive review, report said.

Source: IIK

Al-Qabas daily reports that the Ministry of Health will continue to import medicines and medical supplies in order to safeguard the strategic pharmaceutical stockpile and ensure that patients receive their medications on a regular basis.

It was reported to the daily that the ministry has received approvals to purchase injections for diabetic patients at an estimated cost of 3.8 million dinars, as well as "syringes" for cancer patients, which will cost 768,000 dinars, as well as "sprays" for respiratory patients at a cost of 1.5 million dinars. The sources added to Al- Qabas that the ministry is in the process of importing “injections” as antibiotics for 275,000 dinars.

The Ministry of Interior has warned drivers against driving construction vehicles on public roads unless it is extremely necessity, noting that construction vehicles will be seized and the driver will be held for violation.

As per the Ministry of Interior it stated “It was noticed in the recent period that some construction vehicles were plying on the roads, in order to protect the drivers of vehicles and roads from being damaged, instructions have been issued to withdraw the license and seize the person and the vehicle for each violator. 

According to Al-Qabas daily, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today launched a joint campaign for Pakistan relief. During the first hours of the campaign, more than 6,397 citizens and residents came forward, and made serious donations for the support and relief of those afflicted in Pakistan. From the start of the donation campaign, they collected 148,000 dinars in less than an hour. In the campaign, only financial electronic donations were allowed, whether through Knet or Visa and MasterCard, which allowed the participation of donors from outside Kuwait.

Acting Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Community Development, Musallam Al-Subaie, said Kuwait has a long history of charity work that has made Kuwait a station of peace and goodwill. Al-Subaie said in a press statement on the occasion of International Charitable Day, which falls on September 5 of each year, that Kuwait contributed to alleviating the suffering of the poor and afflicted in various parts of the world, pointing out that charity work is rooted in Kuwait and means a lot to it and is an integral part of its fragrant journey. He pointed out that the Ministry of Social Affairs urges charity work as a means of permanent support to the needy and downtrodden and those afflicted by man-made and natural calamities, and to build bridges of human communication to achieve this noble goal.

The Ministry of Social Affairs, represented by the Charitable Societies Department, has handed over "usernames" and "passwords" to 64 charitable societies for use in the automated donation collection system, according to reliable sources in the ministry. Something that the ministry is working on launching soon following the completion of the phase of collecting and entering data for each charitable society separately, reports Al-Anba daily.

According to the sources, the ministry will upload charitable projects on the special platform in accordance with the rules and conditions applicable to requests to implement charitable projects inside and outside Kuwait. It falls within six models – construction (internal and external), social development (internal and external), and sponsorships (internal and external), various projects (internal and external), external relief campaigns, and seasonal (internal and external) campaigns. They affirmed that the approved electronic mechanism for collecting donations enjoys a high degree of confidentiality in preserving the data and information of the charitable societies by up to 100 percent. It is expected that the automated system will be launched before the end of next year, according to sources.

A new electronic bank that distributes seeds and helps create a greener Kuwait has been launched by environmental advocates. Called “Kuwait Seed Bank”, the aim of the project is to distribute sustainable plants, as well as, plants that have gone extinct but were refurbished through imports.

A participant in the project, Saad Al-Hayyan, told an Arab newspaper that it aims to contribute to the supply of all seeds. The project also aims for the cultivation and development of greenery for cities and deserts in order to attain a healthy environment and sustainable natural resources through the efforts of local experts.

In addition, Al-Hayyan said the seed bank is the first of its kind in Kuwait and aims to cultivate sustainable and indigenous plants, even those that were extinct. The bank has also announced a voluntary initiative to distribute 30,000 seeds consisting of sustainable and indigenous plants to replenish the environment.

Al-Qabas daily reports that the Public Authority for Manpower has activated a new mechanism to protect the financial rights of private sector and domestic workers. The daily has learned that the concerned PAM departments are now requesting the worker’s fingerprint on the work permit cancellation form to ensure that he/ she receives his full financial dues. The same sources said that this step would ensure that the terms of the clearance between the worker and the employer are finally met, and that the first party obtains its financial dues.

According to the sources, the form prepared by the authority and uploaded to the automated system is in five different languages and bears the responsibility between both parties.

According to the sources, the Authority's Labor Relations Department continues to receive complaints and labor observations every day in its various departments and works diligently to resolve any issues between workers and employers as well as to apply the law appropriately. The sources pointed out that canceling the work permit is only after the worker receives his dues, and the transfer can be obtained based on the regulations in force with the authority in the event that there is another employer to whom the worker’s file is transferred.

In the private sector, both citizens and residents, the authority plans to launch an electronic system to follow up on the disbursement of salaries. An information systems department at the Authority has recently developed a system for disbursing salaries to private sector workers, and the system has been presented to the Inspection Department, according to the sources. By using the developed system, the Inspection Department will follow up on salary certificates and the extent of commitment to payment of financial dues as well as apply regulations and penalties to those who do not comply.

The transfer of the affiliation of the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) to the Ministry of Interior is intended to corner visa traders and owners of dummy companies, as well as address marginal labor, in order to clean Kuwait's human trafficking file. This follows the arrest made by the Egyptian authorities, in coordination with their Kuwaiti counterpart, of a gang that deals with visa fraud.

"A new approach to recruiting workers from different countries is being prepared, and the regulations are being altered to organize the recruitment process according to proportion in a way that helps modify the demographic structure.", said a high-level security source. The government is determined to deal with this file radically, according to several methods, the first of which is to study the labor market and the needs of the development process, and to lay the foundations and criteria for recruiting workers for actual institutions and companies.

Methodology
Legislatively, the second method will be to amend the private sector labor law and the penal code partially to set strict penalties against visa traders due to the insufficiency of current penalties. The government will not hesitate to do so”. The source said the third method involves intensifying inspection campaigns and giving the Immigration Investigations and other inspection teams the green light to monitor companies and institutions that recruit labor from abroad, and ensuring their presence in the labor sites of these companies. It is prohibited to issue new visas to companies that fail to report the departure of those whose contracts have expired.

Sources confirmed that the new recruitment requirements include health insurance from the private sector, not the government, a drug-free certificate, and contracts that guarantee the rights of both employers and employees. He said, “The Embassy of Kuwait in Egypt suspended a number of visas that were issued recently because of a security report that some of them were forged by a gang inside Egypt seized by the Egyptian authorities. In light of the cooperation and coordination between the two countries, the security authorities in Egypt informed their Kuwaiti counterpart about the elements associated with the gang, the names of companies and power of attorney signatures. Several delegates renting commercial or fictitious licenses in Kuwait are in contact and cooperating with the gang.

According to the Ministry of Interior, delivery companies must adhere to their guidelines.

Food Authority health certificates are required for drivers of delivery vehicles, according to guidelines issued by the Ministry of Interior.

The company sticker must be displayed on all delivery vehicles. The residence of the driver of a delivery vehicle should be on the same company, where he works for. And the driver is committed to wear the uniform while driving the delivery vehicle.

As of October 1, 2022, these requirements will be in effect. According to the authorities, whoever violates these conditions will lose their license and be subject to legal action. They urged the owners of companies to comply with the instructions.

The Public Authority for Manpower has activated a new mechanism of taking workers fingerprint on the work permit cancellation form to ensure that he receives his full financial dues, local Arabic daily Al-Qabas reported.

According to report, this step would ensure that all end of service terms between the worker and the employer are fully met, and that the worker received all his financial dues.

The report added that canceling the work permit will be done only after the worker receives his dues, and the transfer can be obtained based on the regulations in force with the authority in the event that there is another employer to whom the worker's file is transferred.

Following the activation of Article 16 of the Law on the Residence of Foreigners in Kuwait, and the arrests of violators during the ongoing security campaigns in various regions of the country, a security source revealed so far about 15,000 expatriates have been deported from the country for some or the other reason since the beginning of this year until date, reports Al-Rai daily. The Arabic daily quoting security sources stressed that the pace of deportation continues at the same level for everyone who is caught violating the law or does not have a known source of income. The security source added that “the Ministry of Interior has begun to activate Article 16 of the Foreigners’ Law, which stipulates the deportation of any resident who has no apparent means of living, as many people who fall under this category have already been deported from the country.”

The source explained the procedures followed by the ministry, “After monitoring a lot of marginal workers and to prevent visa trade, the security campaigns focused on raiding random markets and seizing street vendors and customer visiting these places, and referring them to the residency affairs investigations, in preparation for taking measures to deport them from the country, as they apparently do not have enough income to live a decent life in the country,” explaining that “the aim of their deportation is to prevent them from carrying out immoral or immoral acts.” He revealed that “the number of those who have been deported from the country from the beginning of this year until now, and after the intensification of security campaigns in the country, has reached about 15,000, most of whom are Asians and Arabs.

Warned
The source warned all residents, “Even if the residence permit is valid, if caught in a violating workplace, or is caught in random and illegally established markets, the fate will be immediate deportation from the country.” These deterrent steps are being taken to control the labor market and ensure the marginal workers do not find a place in the country, which has become a threat to the demographic structure, and resulted in illegal practices.

In the Economic Complexity Index (ECI), Kuwait ranked 86th globally in terms of complexity of economy. However, the index showed that the country’s economy has become less complex than it was a decade ago, reports Al-Rai daily. Globally, Saudi Arabia ranked 42, Bahrain ranked 56, Qatar ranked 71, Oman ranked 79, and the UAE ranked 99.

The Economic Complexity Index measures the extent of the country’s productive knowledge and the volume of information on its production capabilities. It also takes into account the volume of the country’s exports and compares it with the development and diversity of other exporting countries.

The index shows that the complexity of the Kuwaiti economy comes despite the increasing diversification of the country’s exports, which has affected less complex products. It believes that Kuwait has few opportunities to diversify its production using the expertise it currently possesses. The index revealed that Kuwait is less complex than what would be expected for a country with its income level, and as a result, its economy is expected to grow slowly.

According to the Growth Lab’s forecasts for 2030, Kuwait’s growth will be around 0.7 percent annually over the next decade, placing it in the lower half of the world’s countries in terms of growth. The “Atlas of Economic Complexity” issued by Harvard Kennedy School describes Kuwait as a high-income country and ranks it as the 27th richest economy by population out of the 133 countries covered by the Atlas.

According to the Atlas, the GDP per capita of Kuwait’s population of 4.27 million is about 24,811 dollars. The average growth of per capita output has reached 3.9 percent during the past five years, which is lower than the average in the countries of the region. Kuwait ranked third richest country in the Gulf after Qatar, which ranked tenth in the world, and the UAE, which ranked 21. Bahrain ranked 31, Saudi Arabia 33, and Oman 41.

Acting Director General of the General Administration of Customs, Sulaiman Abdulaziz Al-Fahad, announced that, based on the directives of the Minister of Commerce and Industry and the Minister of Social Affairs and Community Development Fahd Al-Shariaan, customs instructions were issued to raise the fine for violating customs laws to 3 times the value of the goods seized, which is the maximum according to the unified customs law, reports Al-Qabas daily.

In a press statement, Al-Fahd confirmed that this decision comes after it was noticed recently that many attempts were made to smuggle subsidized supplies outside the country in violation of the law.

The Ministry of Interior issued new instructions for Ice Cream vendors

1. Ice Cream vendors are not allowed to drive on highways and ring roads
2. Vendors must have valid driving license to ride a motorbike
3. Motorbike used for an ice cream cart should have a number plate
4. Motorbikes should be in good condition
5. While riding a motorbike, the driver must wear a helmet
6. During night time reflective vest should be worn
7. Failure to comply with the above rules, will result in a violation where the vendor will be arrested and Ice cream cart will be seized

A new Ministerial Decree announced today by the Saudi Ministry of Tourism simplifies and speeds up entry into the country. New regulations will enable Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) residents with the option to apply for an eVisa through Visit Saudi's online portal.

A valid tourist or business visa from the UK, US, or one of the Schengen Agreement countries will continue to be valid for a visa on arrival, provided it has been used once.

Additionally, visitors no longer need to visit the Saudi Arabian embassy before entering the country, simplifying the process for potential travellers.

The future of the tourism sector rests on elevating the visitor experience, according to Ahmed Al Khateeb, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Tourism. Saudi Arabia is welcoming more and more visitors from all over the world by harnessing digital innovation and streamlining the traveller journey.

We are on track to achieve our ambitious Vision 2030 goals as we develop a sustainable, resilient and competitive tourism sector for our people."

Tourism bridges cultures and connects communities. It creates opportunities and uplifts neighbourhoods, and I am proud to lead the Ministry as we work to build this future."

Since the launch of eVisas in 2019, over 1 million have been issued.

According to Opensignal, an analytics company measuring mobile network experiences, Kuwait ranks second in the Gulf Cooperation Council in terms of 5G network availability for telecommunications.

Bahrain topped the Gulf countries with 34%, followed by Saudi Arabia, the largest market in the region geographically and in terms of population, with 28.2%, Qatar with 16.9%, the UAE with 15.3%, and Oman with 13.9%.

UAE topped the GCC in download speed through fifth generation technology with 316.8 MB/s, followed by Qatar at 278.5 MB/s, and Kuwait at 263.4 MB/s.

As for download speeds, the UAE ranked first with 743.3 MB/s, Qatar with 713.4 MB/s, Kuwait with 663.7 MB/s, Saudi Arabia with 635.9 MB/s, Sultanate of Oman with 503.5 MB/s, and Bahrain with 469.4 MB/s.

In Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman, peak speeds were recorded at a rate of 2.7 times higher than normal speeds.

In comparison with the download speed, the upload speed through fifth generation technology was significantly slower. Qatar topped the average download speed in the region, then the UAE at 27.6 MB/s, Kuwait at 24.6 MB/s, then Saudi Arabia at 23.7 MB/s. second, then Bahrain at 15.3 MB / sec, and finally the Sultanate of Oman at 13.5 MB / sec.

Using fifth generation network services, the following speeds can be achieved:

- Kuwait ranks first in 5G video experience, at 75 points, being the only market where users have an excellent experience (75 points or higher on a 100-point scale).

- The UAE ranked second at 72.4 points, then Bahrain at 71.5 points, Saudi Arabia at 68.8 points, Qatar at 68.6 points, and then the Sultanate of Oman with 67.9 points.

- The UAE topped the GCC countries in gaming experience via 5G with a score of 74 points, followed by Qatar at 69.6 points, Bahrain at 69.6 points, Kuwait at 67.4 points, the Sultanate of Oman at 61.5 points, and Saudi Arabia at 59.7 points.

- In the experience of voice applications, such as: WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger, and FaceTime via 5G, Qatar topped with 80.6 points, followed by Kuwait with 79.6 points, the UAE at 79.5 points, Saudi Arabia at 78.1 points, Bahrain at 77.7 points, and the Sultanate of Oman at 77.4 points.

- The fifth generation technology continues to progress in the countries of the Cooperation Council, so that users can enjoy improved speeds, according to OpenSignal.

In Kuwait, the cabinet decided to stop naming streets and roads, except for those that bear the names of the rulers of the State of Kuwait and those of brotherly and friendly countries, and to begin numbering them instead.

Local media reported that the cabinet urged reciprocity when naming the capitals of friendly and brotherly countries.

A decision was made by the Council of Ministers to assign the Minister of Municipality the task of naming streets and roads only after the rulers and numbering them.

Also, the names of existing streets and roads will not be changed, and this only applies to new streets and roads.