The Kuwait government has outlined a full plan to address demographic imbalances in its meeting with Parliamentary Human Resources Development committee which outlined short term, medium and long term solutions, reports Al Rai daily.
The committee was represented by Minister of Social Affairs and Minister of State for Economic Affairs, Maryam Al-Aqeel where the committee will submit its report by end of this week.
The government plan included the deportation of 360,000 expats within a short term period which included 120,000 residency visa violators, 150,000 unskilled workers, and 90,000 over the age of 60.
As for the medium and long term solutions, the government has set strategic directions and programs to address the demographic imbalance which are based on four foundations: Kuwaitization of government and private sector, Development of human resources by recruiting intelligent expatriate workers, and deployment of technology and digital transformation. ‘
The head of the Human Resources Committee, MP Khalil Al-Saleh, said, “Minister Al-Aqeel presented the government’s vision to address the demographics which focused on the need to distribute communities in Kuwait according to the descent system so that one community would not be overwhelmed by another, for security dimensions and ensuring stability.”
The committee’s member, Osama Al-Shaheen, stated that “all Gulf countries suffer from a high percentage of expat workers in their labor markets, with an average of 82.4 percent, which makes it a general regional challenge, in addition to being a local private,” said Al Rai.
He further stated that “In 15 years (2005- 2020), the Kuwaiti population growth rate was 55 percent, while the growth of expatriates reached 100 percent in the same period, according to the government report data on demographics.”
The government vision confirmed that demographic imbalances have an impact not only on the labor market but have security, social, economic, cultural and urban implications.
Security: An increase and concentration of specific nationalities in places and a percentage of unskilled males.
Social: Risk of spreading criminal and harmful behaviors. The number of males to females has tripled.
Economic: The high cost on the state due to subsidies. There is no added benefit or investment value for unskilled labor.
Cultural: Increase in the culture of dependency on expatriates without any shared knowledge or habits which is incompatible with the culture of society.
Urbanism: Damaged infrastructure, specifically healthcare, and the creation of non-urban societies, in the absence of workers’ cities.