Work on to locate oil spill source

KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem and Minister of Commerce and Industry Khaled Al-Roudhan tour the Kuwait Business Center (KBC) yesterday. —KUNA

KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanem yesterday praised the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for setting up a single counter at Kuwait Business Center (KBC), thus slashing duration for issuing commercial permits from 90 days to only three days. This accomplishment is a preliminary step toward full-scale economic reforms, said Ghanem, who indicated that the prime problem in the sector remained concentration of large numbers of the workforce in the public sector.

For his part, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Acting Minister of State for Youth Affairs Khaled Al-Roudhan said the ministry had received more than 2,500 applications for licensing launch of business companies. Up to 220 permits for very small enterprises have been issued since launching the business center in April, he revealed. The ministry is seeking to improve the domestic business environment and minimizing red tape in coordination with other departments, Roudhan affirmed.

Meanwhile, Minister of Oil Essam Al-Marzouq said yesterday that results of analyzing samples of the oil spill floating off Al-Messilah has not been delivered to the department yet. Meanwhile, action is proceeding round the clock to determine source of the oil slick. Neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia have reported oil leakage at sea, he said, indicating that Riyadh and Tehran confirmed this after being contacted by the Kuwaiti authorities.

"We are still awaiting satellite images to determine source of the oil spills," added Marzouq, also Minister of Electricity and Water, in remarks to journalists at the Kuwait Business Center. So far, there have been no effects on the sea waters "as we have encircled these spots in a specific location," the minister added. Two oil spills have been located in the Kuwaiti territorial waters recently. - KUNA