KUWAIT: Chairman of the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) Faisal Al-Hasawi said the authority will continue supporting productive Kuwaiti farmers and provide them with all their needs. Speaking to reporters after receiving a delegation from Kuwait Farmers Association represented by the newly-elected board of directors headed by Barrak Fahd Al-Sabeeh, Hasawi said both sides discussed the problems of subsidies and distribution of produce. Hasawi added that the Municipality allowed outlets to be opened to sell national agricultural products in a number of PAAAFR parks in all Kuwaiti areas. Hasawi added that he made an agreement to hold a weekly meeting with the association to discuss various problems. Sabeeh highly commended PAAAFR's cooperation and understanding of the problems faced at both Wafra and Abdaly farms.

Technical disputes

Minister of Public Works Abdulrahman Al-Mutawwa started efforts to resume work at the Sixth Ring Road intersections project leading into new residential areas to the west of Jleeb Al-Shuyiukh, after a legal dispute with the contractors was resolved. Mutawwa stressed the need to accelerate resuming the project and resolve the problems it faced while protecting the ministry's rights, especially since the project has been halted for around four years. Notably, the project had been halted because of some technical and contracting disputes with the contractor that had to be taken to court.

E-services

Assistant undersecretary for information technology affairs at the Central Statistical Comission (CSC) Ahmed Khalifa Al-Abduljaleel announced that according to law number 20/2014 pertaining electronic transactions, CSC has experimentally started providing packages of e-services on its website and through smartphone applications pending officially launching them and using e-signatures in all forms for over 55 bodies.  Abduljaleel said CSC is receiving Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) employees in February to file in their e-signature forms to be used later in highly secured e-transactions. He added that the same is in progress for CSC employees, and that e-signatures are electronic certificates to be loaded on citizens' and expats' smart civil IDs, so that they could be used at various Kuwaiti and GCC bodies. Abduljaleel also said that employees would have to memorize their PIN codes to have access to the system and stressed that these codes should be kept secret. He also noted that lost civil IDs should be reported to avoid legal accountability.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi