Chairman of parliament’s Human Resources Development Committee, MP Khalil Al-Saleh announced on Wednesday, 9 September that the report by the committee which examined the issue of restructuring the skewed demographics in Kuwait is nearly completed and ready for submission to parliament.
The report, prepared by the National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim and MPs Rakan Al-Nisf, Ahmed Al-Fadhl, Khaled Al-Shatti and Nasser Al-Dousari, is said to recommend that in order to avoid confusion in the labor market, reduction in the number of expatriates should be implemented gradually and only after successfully replacing some jobs in a category with citizens.
Some members of the committee had reportedly submitted a proposal outlining quotas for each community, but the consensus in the committee was for a quota system that is dependent on jobs instead of nationality, with the proposed number of expatriates working in a particular job sector not exceeding 20 percent.
Every year, the number will need to be reviewed to determine the country’s need for them until all those who are supposed to end their services in various sectors are dispensed with within five years. Articles of the proposed draft law also includes the provision for setting up training centers to qualify Kuwaitis, as well as calls for creating awareness programs to encourage Kuwaitis to work in some jobs in the private sector.
“The report will focus on reducing the number of expatriates in several categories over the next six months, while taking into account the need to reduce the impact of such reductions on the labor market and after taking into consideration the country’s need for expatriate workers,” said Al Saleh. The proposal also calls on the Council of Ministers to expeditiously end professional positions of excess expatriate workers in three labor sectors — public, private and the oil sector.
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