The Occupational Safety Center at the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) is on the verge of carrying out an extensive inventory on the files of the companies that do not comply with the requirements and regulations for providing insurance for occupation-related injuries and accidents and for paying compensation to the victims if such situations occur, reports Al-Qabas daily. According to informed sources, PAM’s center requested companies to renew their files and attach the quarterly statistics (of every three months) along with signature approval, an insurance policy, and a list of occupational accidents and injuries if they occur.
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The American newspaper ‘Boston Globe’ said Kuwait will have to pay or will have paid 677 million dollars to about 45 American hospitals in total bills owed for overseas treatment of Kuwaitis, reports Al-Rai daily. The newspaper stated these are accumulated bills since 2018, resulting from the Kuwaiti government’s policy regarding treatment abroad.
The newspaper pointed out that the hospitals turned to Congress and the US State Department to help them get their dues. It succeeded in its endeavors in late 2020 when Kuwait took the initiative to pay its bills, which was kept secret until last month when Dana Farber Cancer Hospital announced its financial statements and added the Kuwaiti government has put in place guarantees to prevent any future delays in the payment of US hospitals bills. The Boston Globe estimated that Kuwait spends between $200 million and $300 million annually on treating Kuwaitis in American hospitals.
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According to a report issued by the Global Financial Integrity Foundation, the volume of illicit financial flows to Kuwait during the nine-year period from 2009 to 2018 was about $46 billion through trade with all global trading partners, and about $20 billion through trade with 36 developed countries. This has led Kuwait to take the seventh place in the Arab world and 36th place globally, reports Al-Rai daily. The report explained that the total illicit financial flows to Kuwait during the years between 2014 and 2018 amounted to about $30 billion.
The top five Arab centers recorded amounts estimated at $261 billion. Although the report of the American non-profit organization Global Financial Integrity Foundation ranks 134 countries including 14 Arab countries, it highlighted that its estimates do not live up to reliability, but it is assumed that the eyes of the local counterparts will be opened to track these funds and reveal the suspicions related to them because of the indicators they carry and the strong data. In this regard, regulatory sources said illegal flows from trade do not necessarily mean the existence of money laundering and terrorist financing operations, as they may be funds obtained, transferred or used illegally, or they indicate the transfer of acquired funds of illegal activities and tax evasion.
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The Public Authority for Manpower has linked more professions of residents in the country to academic qualifications to regulate the labor market and prevent marginal workers from obtaining designations that would enable them to benefit from various advantages linked to the titles of work permits, reports Al-Qabas daily. PAM has added 6 new titles to the work permits such as swimming lifeguard, diving instructor, scuba diving instructor, water skiing coach, and water skiing supervisor. In order to grant these titles, the commission stipulated that the person should have a higher education certificate known and a diploma in the respective discipline.
The approved titles related to the scientific level exceeded 1,800 professions that are registered with the authority’s automated system, and more titles are expected to be added during the coming period. In addition, an informed source told Al-Qabas the names that were linked are part of the Gulf Manual for Professional Description and Employment, which contains 4,109 professions. PAM added that work is underway to identify occupational titles in the labor market, link them to automated systems, and assess the need according to the issued licenses, indicating that this procedure is a commitment by the GCC countries to standardize the names and symbols of their professions in the labor market.
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Kuwait Telecommunications Company – STC, a world-class digital leader providing innovative services and platforms to clients and driving Kuwait's digital transformation, delighted passengers and airport personnel at Terminal 4 of Kuwait International Airport with freebies. In honor of Kuwait's national day, the project aimed to create a joyful and upbeat atmosphere at Kuwait International Airport.
STC arranged the effort as part of its extended program under the theme "February is very 'wayed' different with STC," which builds on its national holiday celebrations. The action is in accordance with STC's corporate social responsibility policy and the company's desire to join the Kuwaiti people in celebrating this wonderful national festival.
As a welcome gesture, STC provided gifts to both departing and arriving passengers, as well as complimentary drinks and confectioneries, to foster joy and happiness among all travelers. As a mark of appreciation for their hard work and dedication, STC's Corporate Communications team also handed out prizes to airport staff in the departure zones in Terminal 4 at Kuwait International Airport.
"This event is part of a series of activities launched under the national day's campaign with the tagline "February is extremely 'wayed' different with STC" during the month of February, according to STC, which focused on celebrating Kuwait's national holidays with the Kuwaiti people. "We at STC have always been devoted to proactively giving back to the community, and think that even the smallest action can make a difference," the company added.
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Kuwait imported phones worth KD 227 million, including those used on cellular networks (mobile phones) and those used for other wireless networks, in just nine months, reports Al-Anba daily. According to official data, during the period from January 1, 2021 to March 31, 2021, phones worth KD 90 million were imported. The import of phones decreased during the period from April 2021 to June 2021 to KD 57.6 million, but it rose again during the period from July 2021 to September 2021 to KD 79.2 million.
Meanwhile, according to official figures, the average expenditure of each citizen and resident in Kuwait on imported meat, fish and animal products is about KD 9 per month, reports Al-Anba daily. In detail, the volume of Kuwait’s imports of live animals and animal products in the first nine months of 2021 amounted to about KD 378 million.
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During the month of February, when the Liberation Tower reopened to the general public after a long period of closure, approximately 14,000 visitors, including citizens, residents, and members of the diplomatic corps, visited the exhibition organized by the Ministry of Communication on the 150th floor of the Liberation Tower.
The Ministry of Communications held an exhibition of historic devices and modern technologies at the Liberation Tower last month.
According to sources, they intend to hold another two-week show at the Liberation Tower during Ramadan.
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A step to recognise, honour, celebrate and cherish the role of women in uniform
Perhaps for the first time in India, all police stations in a police commissionerate will be headed by women for a day. The newly created Avadi Police Commissionerate will observe International Women's Day on Tuesday by a novel, even if symbolic delegation of power, to women officers.
It was Avadi Commissioner of Police Sandeep Rai Rathore who hit upon this idea to recognise, honour, celebrate and cherish the role of women in uniform.
Mr. Rathore said: "Since it is international Women's Day, we are deputing women inspectors to handle 25 police stations as station house officers for a day. It was never done anywhere. They will be holding the post for 24 hours from midnight of Monday. We can say proudly how much we worked for gender parity in Tamil Nadu. We do our part to do a little bit. The idea is basically to commemorate the day and say women are in charge of most things. Maybe it's a thing of gender parity it looks like."
Inspector-General and Additional Commissioner of Police (Headquarters and Traffic) B. Vijayakumari will hold additional charge as Joint Commissioner of Police for a day on March 8. Similarly, G. Umayal, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Headquarters and Administration, will function as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Avadi and Red Hills districts. The present Deputy Commissioner J. Mahesh has been assigned other duty.
The Commissioner of Police instructed the officers to ensure that no grievance putforth by women remained unattended.
Senior Advocate Geetha Ramashesan said, “It is an interesting move and should not be restricted to one day. However, ideally there has to be gender parity in police stations and in all wings of the department with equal number of men and women.”
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Assistant Undersecretary for the Postal Sector at the Ministry of Communications Khaled Al-Qasba said the State incurs annual losses estimated at millions of Kuwaiti dinars due to the unlicensed operations of 40 companies providing postal services, reports Al- Rai daily. In an interview with the daily, Al-Qasba also unveiled a plan to study the possibility of amending some articles of the Postal Service Law, which was ratified more than 50 years ago.
In a related development, he announced the mid-year plan to award a contract for customs clearance, delivery, transportation and distribution to a private company that made a qualitative leap in postal services. He told the daily that the long-term plan includes conducting a study, in coordination with Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP), on the vision for structuring the sector – privatize the sector, establish a company or the Kuwait Postal Corporation or other suggestions.
He affirmed as well that another project will be implemented soon to regulate services for urgent postal parcels and packages. He said nominal fees will be charged for packages; considering the successful operation of a delivery company in Siddiq Center and Mumtaz Mail in Hittin Center. He added the plan is to open two parcel delivery centers to reduce pressure on Al-Siddiq Center. He said the country has 83 post offices with a total of 1,254 employees; while unveiling the plan to establish Safat Postal Tower next to Liberation Tower. He believes this will be a qualitative leap for post offices and their use of technology, indicating the Postal Administration will be transferred to the tower along with Safat Post Office as the current structure will be demolished. Regarding the discrepancy in the number of employees in the 83 offices, Al-Qasba disclosed the post offices in Hawally and Capital governorates currently need employees. “We are working hard to fill up vacancies in various post offices. Women constitute 60 percent of the total workforce in the sector,” he concluded.
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The Cabinet approved renaming 11 new areas in Kuwait as follows:
- South Saad Al-Abdullah will be renamed ‘Nawaf Al-Ahmad City’.
- South Sabah Al-Ahmad will be renamed ‘Al-Istiqlal City’.
- Nawaf Al-Ahmad City will be renamed ‘Al-Bawadi’.
- South Khaitan (Blocks 1 and 2) will be renamed ‘Al-Tahrir’.
- Northwest Sulaibikhat will be renamed ‘Al-Boom’.
- East Sabah Al-Ahmad will be renamed ‘Al-Khuzama’.
- West Abdullah Al-Mubarak will be renamed ‘Al-Majd’.
- Low cost homes’ project will be renamed ‘Al-Lewan’.
- East Taima will be renamed ‘Al-Dana’.
- South Abdullah Al-Mubarak will be renamed ‘Al-Soor’.
- South Qairawan will be renamed ‘Al-Nuwair’.
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A proposal has been submitted by the Residence Affairs department of the Ministry of Interior to exempt residence violators to leave Kuwait without paying fines due to residence violation, reports Al Anba. This proposal is accepted to be approved due to an increase in residence violators which are currently 150,000 violators in the country who are residing illegally.
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The Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health for Administrative Affairs, Marzouq Al-Rashidi, has issued a circular stipulating the return to the regular official working system in the ministry, starting from Sunday, March 13, reports Al-Qabas daily. The circular indicated that the ministry has already started holding meetings, conferences and internal courses will full participation of the concerned people in person thus doing away with the remote communication.
This circular cancels the earlier circular which was issued by the Civil Service Commission regarding reducing the workforce in government institutions, applying flexible working hours and schedules, and holding meetings, conferences and courses remotely to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The circular pointed to the abolition of all cases of exemption from work, and the employee’s absence from work is only within the limits of the legally authorized leaves, the abolition of the flexible working systems and the rotation system and the return to work with the entire official workforce 100%.
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Saudi Arabia said Saturday it was lifting most COVID restrictions including social distancing in public spaces and quarantine for vaccinated arrivals, moves that could facilitate the arrival of Muslim pilgrims. The decision includes suspending “social distancing measures in all open and closed places” including mosques, the official Saudi Press Agency cited an interior ministry source as saying.
Masks will only be required in closed spaces, according to the decision, which came into effect on Saturday. The Saudi kingdom, which is home to Islam’s two holiest places in Makkah and Madinah, will no longer require vaccinated travelers to provide a negative PCR or rapid test before their arrival in the kingdom or to quarantine, SPA said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hugely disrupted Muslim pilgrimages, which are usually key revenue earners for the kingdom, bringing in some $12 billion annually. Hosting the pilgrimages is a matter of prestige for Saudi rulers, for whom the custodianship of Islam’s holiest sites is their most powerful source of political legitimacy.
In 2021, the coronavirus outbreak forced Saudi authorities to dramatically downsize the hajj for a second year, and just 60,000 fully vaccinated citizens and residents of the kingdom took part. Since the start of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has registered more than 746,000 coronavirus cases, 9,000 of them fatal, in a population of some 34 million.
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Students returned to public and Arabic private schools around Kuwait for the start of the second semester of the 2021/2022 academic year. The Ministry of Education has maintained the two-group system for students until further notice. Under the system, each class of over 20 students is split into two groups that alternate in going to school every other day. – Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh
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The National Assembly is scheduled to hold a special session today to debate the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Kuwait and the Gulf. The government has given assurances that it has sufficient food stocks and warned it will punish those who raise prices artificially. Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem said he received two requests from the government and 10 MPs to hold the special session, adding that the government demanded that the debate be held behind closed doors.
The speaker said the government wants to discuss the current global situation and the implications of the military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine. He said he also received a motion signed by 10 lawmakers to hold a special session today to debate the implications of the Russia-Ukraine war and its impact on the Arabian Gulf and Kuwait.
The lawmakers said in their motion that they want to know the government’s position on a possible increase in food prices, a shortage in the state’s food strategic stockpiles and preparations for the possibility of nuclear pollution from nuclear plants. MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji, one of the signatories of the motion, said he believes there is no need to hold the session behind closed doors and the government should state its opinions publicly.
Meanwhile, Minister of Commerce and Industry Fahad Al-Shuraian said the government has prepared the necessary strategic plans to ensure the continuity of the flow of commodities and foodstuff to the domestic market and the stability of their prices amid global fears of disruptions of supplies as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The minister said in a statement that the state has huge strategic stocks of basic food and consumer goods spread across the country’s various governorates. He said supply chains to the Gulf and Kuwait have not been affected by the war. He said that the ministry’s emergency teams are monitoring the markets round the clock to ensure that prices are not artificially raised, adding that legal measures will be taken against violators.
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Police arrested the prime suspect in the killing of three members of a Kuwaiti family in Ardiya recently, the interior ministry announced. The suspect is an Indian who was arrested in Sulaibiya following investigations after he was identified using CCTV camera footage from nearby homes.
Police found KD 300 in cash plus gold the suspect is believed to have stolen from the house after allegedly stabbing to death the three victims – a couple and their daughter. The suspect was taken to the authorities where he faces premeditated murder charges, the interior ministry indicated in a statement.
According to media reports, the victims, an 80-year-old man, his 50-year-old wife and their 18-year-old daughter were discovered dead at their house, each with multiple stab wounds. Their Ethiopian maid, who worked at their home part-time, was initially apprehended by the authorities, but was later released.
Security officials had earlier ruled out theft after gold and other valuables were found intact at the property, but later discovered that gold and KD 300 in cash were missing. The crime was discovered by the woman’s brother, who discovered the bodies at their home, a security source told local media, and initial investigations revealed that the crime had occurred four days earlier.
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Head of Kuwait International Motorsport Club, Chairman of the organizing committee of Kuwait International Rally 2022 Emad Bukhamseen said the rally will be held under the patronage of Public Works Minister, State Minister for Youth Affairs Ali Al-Mousa during the period of March 17-19. He thanked Minister Mousa for his patronage as this comes out of his support of such championships and caring for the youth as they make up a large part of the society.
Bukhamseen said the rally is the fifth round of the Middle East Championship and expressed confidence in the Kuwaiti youth to organize and host such events successfully. He said motorsport is highly popular among youth in Kuwait and the Gulf. “The state had a sense of that and built Kuwait City for Motorsports which is an outstanding structure with its racing tracks and buildings,” he said. He also appreciated the role of the Amiri Diwan which supervises its administration.
Emad Bukhamseen
The rally competitions are distributed over 10 speed rounds with a distance of 180.60 km while the total distance of the rally is 517.62 km. Kuwait Rally is on the agenda of the Middle East Championship since 1984 but the crises that went through and the two Gulf wars prevented it from happening between 1990-1994 and 1997-2007. Qatar’s Nasser Al-Atiya holds the largest number of wins as he made his seventh win in 2018, superseding UAE’s Mohammad bin Sulayem who has four wins.
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About 242,000 citizens and expatriates traveled during the national holidays; thereby, reviving the money exchange market in the country; considering the remarkable increase in remittances and currency exchange for spending abroad, reports Al-Anba daily. In separate statements to the daily, a number of money changers confirmed that the market is witnessing a great recovery; considering the high demand among citizens and expatriates who purchased different currencies.
The Turkish Lira still constitutes more than 50 percent of the total transactions in the exchange market, especially since Turkey continues to be on top of the most preferred destinations for travelers from Kuwait. Money changer Habibullah Nazat said the pace of work in the exchange market has been good. He confirmed that the Turkish Lira controls 50 percent of the total currencies being purchased and sold in the sector.
He explained that changes in the value of the Turkish Lira contribute to increasing the demand for it as a type of investment. Another money changer who introduced himself as Muslim disclosed the most in demand currencies now include the Turkish Lira, US Dollar, Euro, British Pound and Emirati Dirham. He revealed the Turkish Lira is witnessing the highest demand among market leaders. This year’s demand for Turkish Lira has been the highest so far as Turkey is the most preferred destination among travelers from Kuwait, while the exchange rate of the Lira makes the cost of the trip lower for citizens and expatriates, he added.
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At a time the Ministry of Interior is planning to issue all types of visit visas, particularly the families of expatriates, a security source revealed that verbal instructions were given to stop the issuance of commercial visit visas, especially for the citizens of an Arab country except if it is extremely necessary, reports Al-Anba daily. According to the source, several nationals of the abovementioned country were arrested for begging and the Interior Ministry discovered that they arrived in Kuwait before the holy month of Ramadan.
On the other hand, the source explained the procedures for ensuring that a visitor has been vaccinated against Coronavirus with the vaccines approved in Kuwait before the issuance of the visit visa. He said the Residency Affairs Department will issue the visit visas, while the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and airlines must check the vaccination certificates. Also, the ministry is expected to announce new measures soon in view of the continuous improvement of the health conditions; such as stopping the renewal of residencies for expatriates who are outside the country and remote work
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The Public Relations and Security Media Department of the Ministry of Interior stated that, based on the directives of the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, Lieutenant-General Anwar Al-Barjas, to address the crimes of possessing weapons without a license, and to arrest anyone who violates Law No. 6 of 2015 regarding regulating the collection of weapons, ammunition and explosives, and as part of the efforts of the criminal security sector to impose the prestige of the law, the criminal security sector, represented by the General Department of Weapons Investigation, has issued statistics for the period Jan 1, 2022 to 28 Feb, 2022, reports Al-Rai daily.
The administration indicated that Article No. 4 of Law No. 6 of 2015 regulating the collection of weapons, ammunition and explosives stipulates that “anyone who possesses unlicensed or prohibited weapons, ammunition or explosives shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years, and a fine not exceeding ten thousand dinars or any one of these penalties after the expiry of the period prescribed in Article 6 and Article No. 5 of the same law which stipulates that “Whoever trades in firearms shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years and a fine of not more than fifty thousand dinars including unlicensed ammunition, explosives, or components for their manufacture, smuggling or storage, or contracting with terrorist organizations or cells to sell or purchase from them. The department emphasized the continuation of security efforts to seize unlicensed weapons and ammunition, and called on citizens to cooperate with the efforts of security men in this regard, by calling the emergency No 112 or 1888830 of the Weapons Investigations Operations to report any violation.
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