KUWAIT: CSC chief Ahmed Al-Jassar said a new database is being built to include information about Kuwaiti women's children to prioritize them in employment in the government after citizens. Responding to a question about decree number 17/2017 pertaining prioritizing the children of Kuwaiti women in employment following citizens, Jassar explained that the aforementioned decree prioritized non-Kuwaiti children of Kuwaiti women after citizens, and Arab children of Kuwaiti women came in third place. Responding to another inquiry about the number of non-Kuwaitis employed by the government since Jan 22, 2017, Jassar stressed only 98 were hired, including 52 with specialized university degrees plus over 10 years of experience in their fields and 33 muezzins in the Awqaf Ministry, in addition to 13 others as drivers, office boys, couriers, gravediggers and female prison guards. Meanwhile, Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled stressed the ministry is working on assessing its employees' salaries and incentives according to regulations to update some incentives as per decree number 238/2009. He added that the ministry has contacted the CSC in this regard several times.

Six marine oilfields

KOC CEO Jamal Jaafar said KOC has extended the deadline of receiving bids to drill six marine oilfields till mid-May, to be followed by a month during which the winner will be announced to start drilling by the end of the year. Jaafar estimated the project's budget to be no more than KD 300 million. In another development, Oil Minister Bakheet Al-Rasheedi stressed that there will be no haste in implementing the recommendations made by the KPC administration pertaining the privileges of senior oil officials. Responding to a parliamentary inquiry by MP Omar Al-Tabtabaei, Rasheedi stressed that the decision was made on the board of directors' decision number 57/2016 dated Aug 24, 2016.

E-licenses project

Minister of Commerce and Industry Khaled Al-Roudhan said a great part of the e-licenses project has been completed, so that commercial license issuance or renewal can be done swiftly online. He added that more efforts and discussions are in progress with various state bodies to boost the 'New Kuwait 2035' projects.

By A Saleh