Kuwait’s new government faces new challenges

The country’s new government is plunging into a set of economic, financial and social concerns, amid hopes and aspirations for its success in dealing with the country’s development. One of the topmost concerns is combating financial and administrative corruption, improving the country’s level in anti-corruption indicators, enhancing integrity and curbing abuse of public money, as well as holding negligent people accountable, an Arab daily reported. One of the challenges is establishing vital projects intended to bring economic and investment advancements in the country. In addition, the new government is expected to solve unemployment problems through creation of job opportunities, and develop solutions on academic outputs to keep up with advanced countries in the field.

In addition, the coronavirus pandemic had affected the health and economic situation in the country, urging the new government to make efforts in advancing youth projects and leaders who have been affected by the pandemic through plans that would compensate faltering project owners. A concern in Kuwait’s streets is related to modifying the demographic structure, developing the educational and health sectors, raising the standard of living, as well as human development.

The new government builds on the previous government’s accomplishments, particularly on issues resolved under the directives and instructions of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. One of these concerns was developing a strategy for food and water security, as well as the tightening control over outlets preventing the infiltration of illegal drugs that target especially the youth. Several achievements included the transition to digital government, women and children issues, diversification of national income sources, addressing structural defects in the public budget, and providing executive remedies that guarantee an increase in non-oil revenues.

Moreover, the Ministry of Education is awaiting dozens of educational files that require urgent solutions, particularly those related to educational affairs, and others of an administrative nature that require coordination with other government agencies, but in both cases there are major issues related to the core of the educational system, the most important of which is updating the curricula to keep pace with global development, and use scientific tools to assess educational affairs and measure the level of outputs, especially after the coronavirus pandemic.

The educational concerns that urgently need to be addressed and submitted to the new minister are as follows:

1. Addressing educational standards and updating the curricula to keep pace with the global curricula while promoting digital educational transformation.

2. Studying the current educational backdrop with proper scientific tools to assess the level of output and extent of their academic achievement.

3. Studying the reasons some students enter social care homes, despite the existence of values documents for building an integrated personality.

4. One of the most important pillars of the development plan is the individual, and members participating in the plan must be rehabilitated by organizing training courses to strengthen the current level and realize the vision.

5. Full Kuwaitization of educational bodies, and providing incentives to professionals of scientific specializations to encourage national cadres to enter these specializations.

6. Developing an annual plan for the management of coordination in distributing teachers to schools, according to student densities.

7. Developing radical solutions for the annual preparation for the school year, through five-year contracts for all services, such as furniture, buses, nutrition, hygiene and guard.

8. Filling leadership vacancies in the positions of assistant undersecretaries and directors of educational districts, and stabilizing vacancies in supervisory and other departments.

9. Amending the organizational structure of the ministry to stabilize some educational professions, including the technical director.

10. Coordinating with the Finance department to pay the vacation allowance.

On the other hand, in light of the global impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war, especially in food security and energy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is facing great challenges to preserve the interests of citizens, and to secure food from exporting countries, with the strength of its relations around the world, considering that Kuwaiti diplomacy is a soft power and the first line of defense for the country. Among these important challenges are:

1. Strengthening relations with countries exporting food products, to work on the stability and availability of the country’s strategic stock in all circumstances.

2. Working on counting the numbers of all Kuwaiti citizens abroad, and drawing up an evacuation plan in case the war between Russia and Ukraine escalates.

3. Working on the steadfastness of Kuwaiti policy in the face of external pressures, because of its position on the Palestinian issue.

4. Following-up on Kuwaiti mediation efforts in the region.

5. Following-up on Kuwaiti efforts to remove the names of the five from the Security Council’s lists concerned with combating terrorism.

Moreover, a number of unresolved files to be addressed by the Minister of Social Affairs and Community Development, as they directly affect a wide segment of citizens and employees in the Ministry, include:

1. Completing the mechanization which is currently about 70 percent complete.

2. Mechanizing and organizing cooperative work and methods of selecting association managers and boards of directors, in a way that ensures maximum benefit for shareholders.

3. Placing vacancies in the Ministry, as well as the designation of leadership positions.

4. Opening the door for transfer to meet the needs of the various departments of the required jobs.

5. Facing the challenge of acknowledgment by the staff, after the job in the ministry has become expelling, according to many employees.

6. Working on activating the role of the Supreme Council for the Family and the issues related to it.

7. Working on solving the problem of buildings in the care homes sector, between the Ministry and the Disability Authority.

8. Resolving employee grievance decisions from excellent work and annual reports.

9. Rearranging the legal affairs sector body.

Meanwhile, the challenges awaiting the Public Corporation for Housing Welfare will be on the table of the Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, in order to be able to address the housing issue. The major challenges are:

1. Placing leadership and supervisory positions.

2. Including areas ceded by the Ministry of Defense in the “residential” plan.

3. Including the southern Kairouan region in the plan.

4. Making inventory of vacant lands, and rehabilitating them as housing alternatives.

5. Completing contracts and the budget for the implementation of 9800 low-cost housing units.

6. Adopting necessary laws to invest in housing projects.

7. Adopting the real estate developer’s law, to participate in the provision of housing alternatives.

8. Completing the East Sabah Al-Ahmad project, in implementation of the “Whoever Sold His Home” law.

9. Developing a marketing plan for vertical housing projects.

10. Introducing the Nawaf Al-Ahmad Residential City project.

11. Strengthening the institution’s budget to implement the plans for new housing cities.

12. Developing a plan to qualify national cadres to undertake the implementation of housing projects.

13. Enhancing citizen confidence in smart cities and building green cities.

Moreover, the agenda of each Minister of Higher Education is to develop the educational system and bring it to a practical framework that is capable of meeting the needs of the labor market. Among the main challenges facing the new Minister of Higher Education are:

1. Developing the higher education system and accrediting higher degrees.

2. Combating and detecting forgery of educational qualifications, and preventing the leakage of forged certificates to the labor market.

3. Placement of leadership and supervisory positions.

4. Reviewing the accreditation of Arab universities and opening a wider field for students.

5. Reviewing the accreditation of foreign universities, and banning shops of higher education.

6. Developing the performance of cultural offices and automating their work.

7. Increasing scholarships allocations, and studying the needs of students in each country separately.

8. Increasing foreign and domestic missions and absorbing education outputs.

Kuwait University is looking at many alternatives to address the pressing issues facing the educational and research processes:

1. Assignment of leadership and supervisory positions.

2. Ending the transfer of deanships and colleges to the university campus in Shaddiyah.

3. Handing over the university facilities in Shuwaikh, Kaifan, Khaliya and Adailiya.

4. Addressing the traffic congestion crisis on the university campus in Shaddiyah.

5. Completion of the university’s construction program projects and start implementing the university medical city.

6. Increasing the number of teaching assistants for foreign missions to enhance the university with distinguished educational cadres.

7. Addressing the university’s classification in global indicators.

8. Increasing the budget for scientific research and allowing professors to carry out their research.

9. Establishing a center to market research, inventions and achievements of university professors internationally.

10. Installing cameras and enhancing the security of the Shaddadiya campus and car parks.

11. Opening consultation for colleges to enhance the university’s budget.

12. Processing teachers’ salaries and increasing them according to market changes.

The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training is burdened with many issues, as well. Foremost of which is the void in leadership positions that has exceeded two years, while facing many academic and technical issues that require great efforts, most notably:

1. Settling the positions of the Authority’s Director General and the Deputy Director Generals.

2. Placement of leadership and supervisory positions in colleges and deanships.

3. Addressing the issue of separating applied education from training.

4. Reviewing the certificates of the teaching and training staff.

5. The requirement to dismiss the College of Basic Education and turn it into an independent university.

6. Handling the demands of the faculty to increase their salaries.

7. Linking the outputs of the Authority to the needs of the labor market.

Housing leaders in the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy strongly imposes itself on the rest of the other files awaiting the new minister, due to the large number of vacant positions in the ministry for more than two years, and the file of raising the production of electricity and water led to the current situation, in light of the urban expansion that it is witnessing in the residential lot.

The following are the most prominent concerns awaiting the Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy:

1. Placing vacant leadership positions and resolving the renewal order for agents whose work period has expired.

2. Increasing the electrical and water production capacity by implementing the Partnership Authority’s projects (Al-Zour Al-Shamaliyah, second and third phases, and Al-Khairan, first phase), in addition to the Al-Nuwaiseeb project.

3. Considering transforming the ministry into an institution.

4. Providing electricity and water for new housing cities.

5. Expediting the issuance and awarding of tenders for the maintenance of power stations, transmission and distribution networks sectors, and water operation and maintenance.

6. Removing old stations that have expired, and creating new ones.

7. Placing vacant supervisory positions, in light of more than 130 vacant positions.

The new Minister of Public Works is awaiting concerns that require great efforts, by completing what the former Minister, Engineer Ali Al-Mousa, started to restore citizens’ trust in the service ministry. The following are the most prominent ones that will be on the minister’s table:

1. Placing leadership positions and consideration of the possibility of renewal for agents.

2. Approving budgets for the proposal and implementation of delayed projects.

3. Completing maintenance of secondary streets, and putting forward and implementing highway projects.

4. Offering tenders for the maintenance of the rainwater drainage network.

5. Inviting tenders for safi removal contracts.

6. Executing the Kuwait Airport “T2” project according to its schedule, and completing the awarding of the tenders for the third package and the airport road intersections.

7. Completing the vacancy filling plan.

Moreover, the Anti-Corruption Authority “Nazaha” is looking forward to completing a number of files that will facilitate its work, as well as improve the atmosphere of integrity and combat corruption, including:

1. Adopting a law criminalizing bribery in the private sector.

2. Expanding the scope of the liability of legal persons in corruption crimes and determining penalties commensurate with the nature of the legal person, by amending some provisions of the Penal Code promulgated by Law 16/1960, as amended by Law 31/1970.

3. Adopting a law prohibiting conflicts of interest.

4. Addressing the delay of some authorities in updating the data of those covered by the provisions of the financial disclosure

5. Granting the authority’s chairman, his deputy, the board of trustees and the technical staff immunity that would improve the work environment and its results.

The Ministry of Interior faces a set of challenges and vital files. The most important of which is solving the traffic congestion crisis, in addition to modifying the demographic structure with the transition of the Public Authority for Manpower to the Ministry of the Interior. The prominent files are as follows:

1. Residency dealers and demographics adjustment.

2. Issuing the Residence Affairs Law.

3. Amending and approving the Traffic Law.

4. The Bidoon Law and the Naturalization of those eligible, and the law to amend the naturalization of Kuwaiti wives.

5. Eliminating violating workers in the country, by amending their status or deporting them.

6. Filling the shortfall in the number of police forces in public security, traffic and emergency services.

7. Opening of visas after being suspended for more than 3 months.

8. Developing coast guard monitoring systems and increasing boats.

9. Developing land ports to keep pace with the number of travelers entering and exiting.

10. Filling the shortage of vacant positions and senior positions, from assistant agents to department heads.

11. Strengthening the fight against smuggling of liquor and drugs.

12. Activating the Ministry’s role with the concerned authorities to develop solutions in treating addicts and abusers instead of imprisonment.

In addition, there are challenges awaiting the scalpel of the next Minister of Health, pertaining to the creation of a new health system to be enforced soon. Some of the most prominent files on the next minister’s table, and what they require to provide a close vision to diagnose and strengthen the health system, as well as bridge some of the serious gaps are the following:

1. Developing a health strategy at the outset of operation of Daman hospitals, and a holistic vision to deal with challenges.

2. Addressing the inflation of the current administrative structure, with the opening of the Daman Hospitals project.

3. Adopting the development of accurate and specific criteria to measure the percentage of completion and evaluation of doctors, as well as reducing the recruitment of medical cadres from abroad.

4. Preventing duplication of receiving health services for the same references in more than one health facility, and benefiting from digital transformation, to reduce misuse of resources and waste of public money.

5. Completing the automation of the health system and the unified electronic file for patients, including the governmental and private health sectors.

6. Completing the quest towards focusing on the treatment file abroad, and its occasional excess, and legalizing scholarship cases and breaking away from political pressures.

7. Continuing to confront the challenges facing the health system in managing new hospitals, completing the operating stages, and preparing to start operating the first stages of projects that the ministry will receive soon.

8. Completing the challenges facing medical and health education, which are related to preparing cadres of doctors and health care providers.

9. Activating electronic-based reports instead of paper-based ones.

10. Implementing the new organizational structure of the Ministry, and completing the filling of vacancies.

11. Implementing the principles of the plan for the comprehensive improvement of the quality of services, as well as establishing a supreme mechanism for planning and implementing the Ministry’s strategies, and restructuring and governance of the health system.

Furthermore, the Environment Public Authority seeks to work on and complete the most prominent set of concerns to improve the environmental situation in the country in coordination with the relevant authorities are as follows:

1. Solving the problem of dozens of sewage drains that flow into the sea and cause pollution.

2. Reducing the print cycle and pushing towards electronic correspondence.

3. Increasing awareness campaigns to maintain the safety and cleanliness of the environment.

4. Reducing the use of plastic bags, and replacing them with environmentally friendly ones.

5. Continuing the preservation of migratory birds, and preventing them from being harmed or hunted.

6. Encouraging citizens to increase the green area, especially trees known for their environmental benefits, such as the mangrove plant.

On the other hand, the following are the most prominent files awaiting the Minister of State for Services Affairs in relation to the General Directorate of Civil Aviation:

1. Transforming the administration into an independent body, similar to the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

2. Completing the operational plan for the new airport, scheduled to receive about 25 million passengers annually.

3. Settling supervisory positions, assigning competencies, and abolishing nepotism and favoritism.

4. Granting hazard and pollution allowances and allowances, and approving some suspended allowances for all workers at Kuwait Airport, especially as they have proven their worth in dealing with evacuation flights during the coronavirus crisis.

5. Reorganizing the organizational structure in the General Administration of Civil Aviation.

6. Returning the higher authority of the General Administration of Civil Aviation to the entities operating at Kuwait Airport.