KUWAIT: Health Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah has revealed that the relevant state bodies had approved a bid of the Seoul National University to operate the new Jahra Hospital. The announcement was made by the health minister during the Cabinet's weekly meeting on Monday, of the ministry's plans for operating the newly-built Jahra Medical City, according to a Cabinet statement.

The minister has informed the government that the joint committee for coordination and follow-up of procedures of the Jahra Medical City administration in coordination with the Amiri Diwan and the Ministry of Finance had studied bids submitted by a number of specialized international institutions for the management and operation of the new Jahra Hospital. They concurred that the best and most comprehensive offer was the one submitted by the Seoul National University, he pointed out. He stated that the hospital operation contract would hammered out by the governments of Kuwait and South Korea.

The new Jahra Medical City is one of the largest healthcare development projects in the Middle East. The project forms a key part of the state's ongoing plans to upgrade national health care and raise the capacity of hospitals by 60 percent. The layout of the new internationally standardized medical complex comprises of eight separate buildings. The most prominent is the main hospital building, which has a total built-up area of 440,000sqm, and rises to 15 floors. The project is valued at 365 million Kuwaiti Dinars ($1.18 billion) and includes a fully equipped 1,234 bed hospital, a fully equipped dental facility with 115 treatment rooms and a regional health administration building.

Furthermore, the hospital will feature a women's center, trauma center, 32 operating suites including two hybrid operating rooms, a hybrid CT operating suite, and a hybrid MRI operating suite. The outpatient facilities have 22 departments with 135 clinics with state of the art equipment which includes a 10 seat hyperbaric chamber, the first multi-seat facility of its kind in Kuwait. Other service buildings include a public car park and staff car park, both accommodating 5,000 cars and two emergency shelters, each for 300 people.

New year

At the beginning of its meeting at Seif Palace chaired by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, the Cabinet congratulated His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on the advent of the new year. The ministers extended sincere congratulations to His Highness Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the Kuwaiti people on advent of new year. The Cabinet members prayed to God the Almighty to make 2020 a happy year for Kuwait, Arab and Muslim nations. They also wished that in 2020 peace and stability would prevail in the whole world.

Commitment to democracy

Meanwhile, the government reiterated its commitment to democracy and provisions of Kuwait's constitution in dealing with parliamentary grilling motions. In a press statement following the meeting, the Cabinet said it had studied the grilling motion filed by lawmaker Dr Adel Al-Damkhi against Minister of Social Affairs Ghadeer Aseeri. It noted that it had also assessed the motion's adherence to the relevant constitutional provisions, National Assembly regulations, and the previous constitutional court verdicts.

As government believed that ministers' grilling was a right guaranteed by the constitution for each member of the National Assembly, it was fully committed to a democracy that promotes interests of the state and embodies cohesion and unity among all Kuwaitis, the Cabinet stated. MP Dr Adel Al-Damkhi on Sunday addressed Acting National Assembly Speaker Essa Al-Kandari with a motion to grill Minister of Social Affairs Dr Aseeri, accusing her of disrupting cooperation among authorities and dishonoring her oath. The motion will be on the agenda of the parliamentary session on January 7.

Neutral zone

In the meantime, the Kuwaiti Cabinet hailed the recently inked agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to resume joint oil production from the partitioned neutral zone on the Kuwaiti-Saudi borders. The Cabinet greatly welcomes the two sisterly countries signing -- in Kuwait City on December 24, 2019 -- of an appended agreement to agreements of partitioning the neutral zone and delimiting the submerged zone adjacent to the partitioned neutral zone as well as a memorandum of understanding for resuming joint oil production from the neutral zone, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh said in a press statement following the Cabinet meeting.

Saleh, also minister of interior, pointed out that the Cabinet noted that these agreements had embodied the distinctive and special fraternal ties between the two Arabian Gulf nations as well as their leaderships and peoples' deep believe in their shared destiny. It affirmed that the agreements had come in implementation of directives of His Highness the Amir of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and his brother the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as well as His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and his brother Crown Prince of the Kingdom Saudi Arabia, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

The government expressed admiration of the great level of cooperation, understanding, and harmony among political, legal and technical negotiating teams from both sides and their special efforts which helped materialize the vision of the two countries' leaderships. On this occasion, the government congratulated the political leadership in the two countries and their peoples on this milestone, and prayed to God Almighty to help them continue the march of cooperation for achieving common interests, Saleh said.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah and Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water Dr Khaled Al-Fadhel briefed the Cabinet about the outcome of last week's visit to Kuwait by Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud. They pointed out that during this visit the appended agreement to the partitioned neutral zone agreement and the submerged area agreement as well as the MoU of resuming oil production from the neutral zone were hammered out.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet lauded the Saudi security forces' success in derailing a plot to carry out a terrorist operation in the eastern Saudi city of Dammam. Kuwait also backs the measures taken by its sisterly neighbor to maintain its security and stability, the Cabinet said in a press statement following its weekly meeting. On Sunday, the Saudi security command announced killing two terrorists and arresting a third as well as seizing an amount of explosives and live ammunition during a security operation that took place in the eastern city of Dammam a few days ago.

Deadly attacks

The Cabinet strongly condemned the past few days bloody terror attacks and shootings which left many casualties in several countries across the globe. The Cabinet denounced the Houthi militia Sunday's missile attack on a military parade in the southern Yemeni city of Daleaa, which resulted in the killing and wounding of a number of innocent soldiers and civilians. The Cabinet also strongly condemned the terrorist attack that targeted a military base in northern Burkina Faso, and left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead or injured.

It also denounced a stabbing incident near a temple in New York and a shooting inside a church in Texas which left several casualties. Moreover, the Kuwait government condemned the terrorist blast near a checkpoint in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Saturday, which resulted in the death of a large number of people. It reiterated Kuwait's firm stance against violence and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations regardless of its motives.

Furthermore, the Cabinet extended condolences to leaders of a number of friendly countries for the loss of many lives in the past few days due to natural and manmade disasters. The Cabinet offered sincere condolences to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi for losing of dozens of lives in a road accident on Saturday. It also condoled with President of Indonesia Joko Widodo for the lives lost in the tragic bus crash in Sumatra Island, in which scores were killed and several others were injured. The Kuwaiti government also expressed its deep sorrow over the death of dozens by the Phanfone typhoon that struck the Philippines last Wednesday.

It also extended condolences to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune for the death of the deputy minister of defense and chief of staff Gaid Saleh. The Cabinet recalled Saleh's prominent role in helping his country retrain security and stability. It offered condolences to Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for the recent passenger plane, in which 12 people were killed and several others were injured. The Cabinet expressed sympathy with families of the victims of all the incidents and wished the wounded people speedy recovery. - KUNA