KUWAIT: The total number of expatriates working in the public sector has decreased one year since the policy of replacing foreign employees with citizens was launched, recent official statistics has shown. The total number of expatriates working in state departments dropped from 82,061 in 2017 to 80,933 in 2018, ie 23.14 percent of the total manpower working for the government, according to statistics released by the Civil Service Commission (CSC); the state department responsible for employment in the public sector. Furthermore, the statistics show that CSC has terminated the contracts of 1,128 non-Kuwaitis in the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

Family members

Recent Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) statistics showed that an average Kuwaiti family includes seven members, while non-Kuwaiti families have an average of only 2.7 members per family. Statistics also showed that the average birth rate among citizens is 24 per 1,000, while the average for expats is eight per 1,000. On the other hand, the death rate is 2.5 per 1,000 amongst Kuwaitis and 0.9 per 1,000 amongst non-Kuwaitis. Statistics showed that 63 percent of the expatriate population comprises of males, while expat females form only 37 percent.

Lease contract

Ministry of Commerce and Industry's (MoC) assistant undersecretary Mohammed Al-Enezi received the form of the unified lease contract proposed by the deputy chairman of the real estate brokers union Emad Haidar. Informed sources said the new lease will be subjected to studies to be officially used throughout Kuwait, with the aim of regulating the real estate market and putting an end to the chaos dominating it, as well as scrap lease forms bought at bookstores and stationery shops pending the shift to e-contracts.

Final statement

The parliament's budgets and final statements committee met to discuss the 2018-2019 proposed budget, the final statement of the 2016-2017 fiscal year and the State Audit Bureau remarks, the committee's head MP Adnan Abdulsamad said. The committee also discussed government bodies' delay in recruiting in the last three months of the fiscal year, despite the Environment Public Authority's (EPA) reports that its new structural organization increased the number of vacancies.

Al-Ghouss Street

The engineer responsible for the execution and maintenance of the Al-Ghouss Street project Khalid Al-Meraj said that 42.5 percent of the project has been completed, noting that this was ahead of the scheduled rate of completing 32.8 percent by the end of May. Meraj added that the project was one of the most urgent and important projects currently executed by the roads authority with the aim of improving the capacity of roads in residential areas surrounding the project route as well as reducing traffic congestion along Fahaheel Expressway and other connected roads. Meraj explained that the project includes six main intersections, three flyovers, a tunnel and a two-lane 807-m-long U-turn bridge above the Fifth Ring Road.

By A Saleh