KUWAIT: Minister of Commerce and Industry Khaled Al-Roudhan yesterday issued a ministerial resolution banning the export of molded copper without written approval from the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW), said informed sources, noting that the decision was made upon a request from MEW. The step comes in a bid to fight theft of high voltage cables which thieves steal from power transformers, extract copper from inside then export that copper as scrap metal.

Social aid
Ministry of Social Affairs' acting undersecretary Hana Al-Hajery said the ministry recently finished automating 100 percent of all aid given in 2018 in a bid to reduce the burden of citizens receiving such aid, adding that automation included interconnection with 15 government bodies pending connecting with others by the end of the year. Hajery added that this was one of the ministry's achievements in 2018, in addition to automating the cooperation sector and co-ops' elections, electronic barcoding and entrepreneurs' complaints. Hajery said automating the cooperation sector helped increase sales to KD 900 million and reduce the value of unsold goods from KD 5.2 million to only KD 1.6 million.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi