Minister Hind Al-Subaih

KUWAIT: The number of strategic projects in Kuwait's development plan for the 2016/2017 fiscal year reaches 26, with a total value of over KD 2 billion, or an average of KD 64 million for each venture, a government official said yesterday.

Kuwait is currently witnessing an era of executing a number of developmental projects, in addition to housing projects and others carried out through the public private partnership (PPP) module, said Hind Al-Subaih, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and State Minister of Planning and Development.

Meanwhile, Subaih said that there are six projects to be carried out by the Partnership Technical Bureau in the 2017/2018 fiscal year, with an estimated total value of KD 6 billion, which makes up nearly 25 percent of strategic projects' total cost. In addition, the same fiscal year includes one project for shareholding companies with an estimated value of KD 611 million. Therefore, projects to be carried out through the public private partnership and shareholding companies' concepts would make up 28 percent of strategic projects' total cost.

Annual development plans include several key projects such as the metro and railway project to be carried out as per the PPP concept, in addition to strategic projects in the health and education fields, Subaih added.

Gas stations closed

Gas stations around Kuwait will stop operations half an hour before midnight Wednesday, and will resume work on the early hours of Thursday using the new tariffs for gasoline announced last month. The new prices, which officially become effective on September 1, are as follows: 85 fils for premium gasoline (42 percent increase), 105 for super gasoline (62 percent increase) and 165 fils for ultra gasoline (83 percent).

Price control

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is ready to implement its plan to monitor prices as soon as the new gasoline tariffs are implemented, said Eid Al-Rashidi, the Undersecretary Assistant for Commercial Control and Customer Protection Affairs. Ministry inspectors will tour markets around Kuwait in order to detect any cases in which prices are increased without valid reasons, Rashidi said. He urged consumers to contact the hotline: 135 in case they encounter any fabricated price increase incidents.

Labor protest

Around 200 workers employed by a major company demonstrated outside the Palace of Justice yesterday to demand monthly salaries they have not received in six months, according to their statements. The Asian laborers, whose average monthly salary reaches KD 70 each, said that they went to the Palace of Justice because they could not find anywhere else to demand their rights. The services' director at the Palace of Justice then met the workers and explained to them that the right place to make their complaint is the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, so they walked there to file their grievance.

Five languages

Kuwait Human Rights Society released booklets containing the domestic helpers' law with all of its articles in five different languages: Arabic, English, Tagalog, Hindi and Urdu. The project was carried out in cooperation with the Dutch embassy in Kuwait. It was produced and distributed in cooperation with the Domestic Labor Department at the Interior Ministry, said Khaled Al-Humaidi, the society's chairman. The booklet is part of a series of publications that also include the labor law, and which aims at raising awareness among expatriate labor forces regarding their rights, Humaidi added.

Lower temperatures

Humidity levels are expected to drop before the weekend, while hot and dry weather with relatively lower temperatures during the night should prevail during the first week of September, veteran meteorologist Essa Ramadan said.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi