KUWAIT: According
to official statistics, Kuwaitis' total spending on travel increased by 17.6
percent in 2018, where they spent KD 4.03 billion ($13.9 billion), compared to
only KD 3.43 billion ($11.31 billion) in 2017. The statistics also showed
revenues from tourism have retreated by 10.6 percent as the tourism sector only
made KD 378 million compared to KD 423 million in 2017. A World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO) study had pointed out Kuwaitis annually spend 11 percent
of their income on tourism, travelling and recreation - the highest in GCC
states - followed by Saudis, who spend 7 percent of their income on tourism,
Qataris 5.7 percent, Omanis 3.3 percent and Bahrainis 2.1 percent.

Price control

Minister of
social affairs Saad Al-Kharraz stressed that the ministry is closely monitoring
consumer goods prices in various co-ops during Ramadan to prevent any
unjustified price hikes accompanying the high demand during the holy month.
Speaking on the sidelines of an iftar with residents of social care homes,
Kharraz said special teams had been formed in collaboration with the Ministry
of Commerce and Industry, the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies and the
Public Authority for Manpower to tour and inspect various co-ops and fine
violators.

High school
graduates

Kuwait University
is scheduled to hold a meeting within a few days with various educational
facilities including private universities and the Public Authority for Applied
Education and Training (PAAET) to discuss the admission of high school
graduates for the next academic year (2019-2020), said informed sources. The
sources added that this meeting is held on an annual basis to set the
arrangements to open local and overseas scholarships according to budgets,
capacities and labor market needs.

Fake degrees

The Manpower and
Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) recently asked the Ministry of
Education to provide it with information concerning the academic sequence and
the validity of degrees obtained by around 40 of its employees, as it launched
an investigation into suspicions that some of them could have fake degrees.

South Khaitan
project

Head of the South
Khaitan housing project's committee Bader Al-Mutairi predicted that if
everything goes according to schedule without any obstacles, construction
orders will be distributed to beneficiaries by the end of 2020. Mutairi added
committee members recently met the Public Authority for Roads and Transportation's
deputy director Soha Ashkanani, who told them that receiving bids for the
tender of building the project's infrastructure will be completed on May 26,
then the offers will be studied.

Cleaning tenders

Well-informed
source at Kuwait Municipality said the municipality's executive body is fully
committed to studying cleaning bids within a month after receiving them from
the Central Agency for Public Tenders. "We received the offers on March 11
and sent our reply on April 11, which means there is no delay on our
side," the sources stressed. The sources added that the municipality
suggested conditioning that contractors only take one project each in order to
create competitiveness amongst them and help reduce costs, which has already
happened as new contracts cost 55.65 percent less than the previous ones. 

By A Saleh and
Meshaal Al-Enezi