KUWAIT: Teams of the population rebalancing committee have increased efforts regarding the implementation of the decisions of the first committee meeting held last week headed by Interior Minister Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled, as they distributed these teams around government departments to ensure that these recommendations are being followed in hope that they achieve the goal of reducing expatriates to 30 percent of the population.

"The recommendations call on government agencies to stop any appointments of expatriates on the allowance system and to immediately start laying off those appointed on this system, with the exception of workers in service businesses such as janitors, messengers and drivers. Government agencies responded they are continuing to lay off expatriate employees on the allowance item and there will be no new appointments of expatriates, as the Civil Service Commission rejects any job grades for expatriates when a government agency requests them," sources revealed to Kuwait Times.

"The recommendations also included asking government agencies directly to force the employment of at least 50 percent of Kuwaitis in private companies that implement government projects, otherwise these companies will be excluded from any future government tenders. These measures can replace expatriates with at least 50,000 Kuwaitis in less than three years," sources clarified.

"The supreme committee for demographics rebalancing will discuss a number of proposals related to reducing expatriates and controlling the labor market, including regulating the work of expatriate taxi drivers and only granting these licenses to retired Kuwaitis, bedoons and children of Kuwaiti and Gulf women," sources revealed.

"This could make around 5,000 expatriate workers leave the country due to decreased demand in the labor market. It also applies to hawkers such as mobile ice cream cart vendors, whose numbers amount to around 6,000 workers and whose permits may not be renewed by the Public Authority of Manpower," sources explained.

"The committee will support an earlier proposal calling on the interior ministry, more specifically the traffic police, to prevent any vehicle than 10 years old - 15 years for others - from the streets according to quality specifications, as this can help reduce traffic jams and regulate the number of expatriate workers," sources added.