KUWAIT: His Highness Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah heads the Supreme Council for Planning and Development’s meeting yesterday. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The Supreme Council for Planning and Development, headed by its President His Highness Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, met yesterday to discuss the nation's annual development plan for fiscal 2017-2018.

The Council, after deliberations and thorough vetting of the plan, endorsed it and turned it over to the government for its take on it, said Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Minister of State for Planning and Development Hind Al-Subaih, in a statement after the conclusion of the Council's meeting.

Subaih indicated that the fiscal plan encompasses no less than 280 projects with a cumulative cost estimate of six billion Kuwaiti Dinars. The plan anchors on several fundamentals, chief among them being a pro-active government eager to get things done through instigating legislations, e-government service, and supporting the use of information technology in all government ministries and agencies, she said.

Sustainable economy

Further, another fundamental requires a variegated sustainable economy buoyed by a hospitable business environment, increased rates of investment, financial reforms, diversified productivity of goods and services, and germinating the seeds of a well-nurtured tourism industry in the country, said Subaih.

She added that another bedrock of the fiscal plan is boosting the nation's infrastructure through expanding the capacity of Kuwait International Airport, increasing the production of electric power, developing roads and ports and air travel, and bolstering the use of information technology and advanced communications in the execution of infrastructure projects.

Moreover, she noted that the fiscal plan for 2017-2018 rests in a major part on sustainable living conditions for the nation's population through providing adequate housing to citizens, improving sanitation conditions in neighborhoods across the country, safeguarding the environment from air and water pollutants, among other considerations.

Health care

Also figuring high in the plan is providing optimum health care services through increasing the number of beds in hospitals, curbing the onset of long-term diseases, and streamlining all patient care assistance, said Subaih, noting that the plan focuses at the same time on improving education, addressing the needs of the labor market, supporting programs for the care of children and the elderly and the disabled, as well as empowering the youth.

She furthermore stressed that the plan seeks to promulgate a luminous image of Kuwait on the international scene and to give much support to culture, art, and media. She ended her statement by saying that the Council discussed today a follow-up report on the nation's development plan for fiscal 2015-2016, prior to turning it over to the government and subsequently to the National Assembly for eventual vetting or endorsement. - KUNA