News Summary Report Thur, May 27, 2021
External Affairs
A Call to Establish Global Probe Panel in Zionists’ Crimes: Kuwait
Kuwait resumed its efforts that support the Palestinian cause. It called for the establishment of a global probe panel to investigate crimes of Zionists and to enforce accountability procedures.
Mr. Gamal Al-Ghunaim, Kuwait’s permanent deputy to the UN stressed on Kuwait’s interest to dedicate the emergency session of the Human Rights Council, which is assigned to discuss repercussions of the humanitarian and rights conditions in the occupied Palestinian lands, to reach important results that achieve the Palestinian people’s aspirations.
The session, which will be held via video conference technique today (Thursday), is called for by pressures from the Islamic Group in the aftermath of the last aggressions of the Zionist occupiers and violations of Geneva agreements’ articles, said Al-Ghunaim.
Further, he added that based on Kuwait’s keen interest on the humanitarian and rights’ condition of the Palestinian people, Kuwait’s Foreign Minister and State Minister for the Cabinet Affairs, Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al-Nasser will have an important intervention in the works of this emergency session.
Moreover, he pointed out that the intervention of the Foreign Minister at the UN Human Rights Council will be the first of its type for a Kuwaiti foreign minister since establishment of the UNHR in March 2006.
Meanwhile, Kuwait condemned the discrimination policies adopted by the Zionist occupation forces, which are based on enhancing apartheid and ethnic cleansing, which caused daily suffering for the Palestinian people to have their simplest rights guaranteed by international laws and treaties related to human rights.
Al-Qabas
Kuwaiti Aids’ Caravan Entered Gaza
Kuwaiti Medical and relief aids went to Gaza yesterday (Wednesday) from Cairo to Rafah border crossing and then to Gaza Strip in order to contribute in alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people.
Mr. Yousef Al-Meraj, head of the Kuwaiti delegation and manager of disaster and emergency department at Kuwait Red Crescent Society pointed out that the Society responded immediately to providing medical aids and medical requirements to meet the severe consumption of such materials due to the condition there. Further, he said that the Kuwaiti caravan carries on board 85
tons of aids, including 1000 food baskets that have been bought from the Egyptian local market. Each one food basket is sufficient for each family for two weeks.
In addition, he said that the relief aids, which will be distributed by the Kuwaiti Red Crescent and its Palestinian counterpart will focus on impacted people from the Zionist aggression, including orphans, shelter centers and health centers.
He added that the Red Crescent team in Gaza Strip will make field visits to regions and hospitals that are impacted to assess damages and emergency humanitarian aids and to ensure safety of injured people and to identify the most significant health needs at Gaza hospitals.
He stressed that hundreds of Palestinian injured people are in need of treatment and medicine. Meanwhile, tens of families became homeless without shelter or food or medicine after their houses were demolished.
In this regard, he urged citizens, business people, companies and banks to donate in the relief campaign “We Support You Palestine” to contribute in alleviating suffering of Palestinian people by providing emergency health and food services to impacted people.
Al-Qabas
Kuwait, Libya Foreign Ministers Discuss Relations
Kuwait Foreign Minister and State Minister for the Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Dr.
Ahmad Al-Nasser and Libya Foreign Minister Dr. Naglaa Al-Manqoosh discussed in a phone call on Tuesday the strong bilateral relations between the two countries and means of their enhancement in all fields.
Further, they discussed the conditions in Libya and the continuous efforts to enhance the desired political process; and how the Libya Government pursues the UN prescribed roadmap to achieve unity of the country and maintain its security, stability, unity and prosperity till reaching the election scheduled on December 24, 2021.
Al-Qabas
Kuwait’s Press is Free and Vibrant – Optimistic About it: the US Envoy The US ambassador to the State of Kuwait Alina Romanowski stressed during the virtual forum organized by the US embassy under the theme “Freedom of the Press in the USA and Kuwait” on the importance of enhancing democracy.
“I think that Kuwait still has virtal press, and we see many changes in all countries. However, in Kuwait you still keep freedom of the press”, she said, adding that “investigation press is hard to undertake even in the USA as we all face the same difficulties and challenges. Therefore, I’m more optimistic when
it comes to freedom of the press in Kuwait. The Kuwaiti people need free and active press and I’m optimistic regarding this subject”.
Further, he said that Kuwait is a leading country in the GCC and Middle East in freedom of the press.
Meanwhile Head of Kuwaiti Information Society Dr. Yousef Al-Khalifa pointed out that Kuwait lost 45 ranks in press freedom index within 10 years.
He said that media laws and legislations cause much restrictions to get and circulate information. He added that we have a problem in press work as there are no legislative environment that ensure the rights of media people to get information.
Al-Qabas
Kuwait Deputy FM Receives US Amb.
Kuwait Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Majdi Al-Dhafiri met on Wednesday US Ambassador to Kuwait Alina Romanowski.
During the meeting, both sides discussed mutual relations besides regional and international developments.
Assistant Foreign Minister for the Deputy Foreign Minister’s Office Ambassador Ayham Al-Omar was present at the meeting.
KUNA
Kuwait Relief Society Provides $ 1.5 Million for Yemen
Kuwait Society for Relief (KSR) signed a $ 1.5 million deal with Yemen’s Agency for developing small facilities for an agricultural project.
The project aims to provide financial and technical support to farmers for local manufacturer, said a joint statement by the two sides during the signing ceremony.
The scheme targets two main components; agriculture to benefit 400 people and manufacturing that targets 440 others, it added.
The KSR aims to assist the brotherly Yemeni people and alleviate burdens of the wars on the most vulnerable societies, head of KSR office in Yemen Mahmoud Al-Mesbah said in a press statement.
The society is working with several local companies to carry out varied projects aiming to serving the largest segment of people, he noted.
KUNA
Kuwaiti Travelers to Bahrain Told to Comply with COVID-19 Measures Kuwaitis planning to travel to Bahrain have been urged to closely adhere to measures, issued by local authorities, aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Visitors to the Gulf kingdom, who have been administered two doses of a locally-approved vaccine are exempted from mandatory quarantine, Kuwait’s embassy in Manama said in a statement.
They will need to present the result of a swab test taken ahead of their departure from Kuwait followed by another 10 days after their arrival.
KUNA
KNG chief, Italian team discuss cooperation
The Kuwait National Guard Undersecretary Lt. Gen. Hashem Al-Rifai received the Ambassador of Italy to Kuwait Carlo Balducci accompanied by a military delegation. The two sides discussed cooperation and issues of common interest.
The Kuwait National Guard said in a press statement Wednesday, that the two sides discussed the development of joint cooperation between the Kuwait National Guard and the Italian gendarmerie also known as the ‘Carabinieri.
KUNA
Domestic Affairs
7 Subjects’ Interpellation Directed to the Interior Minister
MPs Thamer Al-Thuwait, Khaled Al-Otaibi, & Dr. Abdulkareem Al-Kandari submitted an interpellation yesterday to the Interior Minister Sheikh Thamer Al-Ali, which consists of 7 subjects. It is the fourth interpellation submitted to ministers on the discussion list, and the 7th interpellation to the government as there are 3 interpellations submitted to His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled.
“According to regulation procedures, I have informed His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled and the concerned Minister of the interpellation that consists of 7 subjects and will be included in the first upcoming regular session”, said Speaker of the National Assembly Marzouq Al-Ghanim.
The interpellation indicates in its introduction the political responsibility of the Interior Minister and other ministers as they have jointly voted for the request of the Premier to postpone interpellations till the end of the upcoming session, which violates the Constitutional oath.
The subjects of the interpellation include restrictions on the meetings’ right, selectivity in enforcement of the laws, restrictions with Bedoun, biased decisions that violate the rules of equality, failure to control traffic and violence surge, failure to handle population structure, and non-response to PMs’ questions.
Al-Qabas
Passengers perplexed over 3-day quarantine
Confusion and misunderstanding regarding the three-day home quarantine requirement engulfed passengers arriving in the country, reports Al-Rai daily.
The daily quoted some arriving passengers as saying that instructions were given requiring them to undergo home quarantine for three days and a PCR test to ensure they are not infected with coronavirus. However, a source from the health sector clarified there is no decision to require these passengers to be quarantined as the rule is to undergo a PCR test within three days after their return and to stay at home while waiting for the results.
The source said these passengers are home quarantined until the PCR test results show they are infected with the virus. He explained the passengers will undergo PCR test only once upon arrival -- on the first, second or third day but it should not exceed three days. On other issues that arriving passengers are currently facing, the daily reported a female citizen expressed dissatisfaction as the Council of Ministers’ decisions were not widely circulated across regional and International airports. For example, travelers at Dubai International Airport
were forced to wait for hours until the information about the quarantine exemption was checked. After that, they were allowed to board the plane.
However, upon arrival at the airport, they were informed about the need to quarantine while waiting for the results of the PCR test. Another traveler complained that they were not informed through Kuwait Mosafer platform about the PCR testing laboratory at Kuwait International Airport, indicating passengers were surprised upon finding out that some of the laboratories mentioned on the platform are located inside the airport while others are outside. Several departing passengers complained about the decision to ban unvaccinated citizens from traveling as many lost money due to the cancellation of their ticket reservations.
The daily said some citizens questioned measures taken by the Council of Ministers that restrict the freedom of citizens; many of whom have commercial interests abroad, others wish to travel for leisure during the summer vacation, and some want to visit relatives and friends in other countries.
They called on the concerned authorities to reconsider the decision to ban unvaccinated citizens from traveling as they have been incurring huge losses due to frequent changes in the rules on traveling. The Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy said the sector concerned with evaluating the performance of the ministry’s employees will soon feed the data in the Civil Service Commission’s system, reports Al-Rai daily. The daily added, the ministry has shortlisted about 17,000 employees with excellent performance, an increase of about 4,000 over the previous year. Meanwhile, the sources explained the Financial Affairs Sector has asked the Administrative Affairs Sector to provide it with the lists of names of employees who have been exempted from working hours since the start of the Corona crisis and the names of those who have obtained what it called the ‘degree of excellence to decide how and to what extent these employees can be rewarded.
Arab Times
Paper tests on Assembly agenda
The National Assembly during a special session slated for Thursday morning will discuss the issue of paper exams for Grade 12 government school’s students as the countdown for exams to be held next Sunday begins.
Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, Dr. Ali Al-Yaqoub and the Undersecretary for Public Education, Osama Al-Sultan, continues with the almost daily inspection visits that include examination committees and controllers of the scientific and literary sections to ensure the readiness of the examination committees to ensure they apply all the evaluation criteria set by the Ministry of Health. The education sources inquired about the fate of the evaluation of the report of Ministry of Health and if the Ministry of Health has
handed over the report to the Ministry of Education with its opinion about the readiness of schools, and why the contents of the report are not announced transparently and if all the measures taken are in the interest of students clear.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Education decided, through the distance education evaluation team, to participate in a guardian’s opinion poll regarding this education in the stages of public education, in light of the outbreak of the new Corona virus. The Education Ministry clarified that this evaluation comes on the basis of the principle of community partnership. The team assigned a measure for the guardian as one of the basic categories to know his opinion on distance education and take it into consideration, and the team was keen to prepare more than one method to simplify the application steps for the guardian on the one hand and maintaining safety to put the electronic link dedicated to the electronic educational platform (TEAMS) through all public education schools on the other hand.
Arab Times
Economy
Kuwait Budget Deficit is the Biggest in GCC: S & P Global
S & P Global Rating Agency estimates that the central government deficit will reach approximately $ 355 billion cumulatively between 2021 and 2024. About 60% of this relates to Saudi Arabia (A-/Stable/A-2), the GCC’s largest economy, followed by Kuwait (AA-/Negative/A-1+) with 25%, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with 7%, and Oman (B+/Stable/B) with 4%.
It expects that Kuwait will register the highest central government deficit-to-GDP ratio of 20% in 2021, followed by Bahrain and the UAE at 6%, Saudi Arabia at 5%, Oman at 4%, and Qatar (AA-/Stable/A-1+) at 1%/.
It assumes that Kuwait will pass a debt law in 2021. Nevertheless, the scale of the fiscal deficit it projects through to 2024 implies that the borrowing authorization under the law (previously proposed at Kuwaiti dinar 20 billion) could be exhausted in about 3 years. As such, current problems will likely resurface. Ministry of Finance estimates that the budget hits an expected accumulative deficit of KD 55.4 billion in five years. A longer term sustainable solution could comprise a more comprehensive program of reforms and fiscal adjustment, including cutting subsidies, closing spending loopholes, and introducing new taxes, like several other GCC states. However, such reforms remain difficult to achieve in Kuwait due to the confrontational relationship between parliament and the government.
Expectations of S & P may be seen by some as pessimistic, however, they are not new as the agency has previously has lowered Kuwait’s sovereign rating in March 2020 from AA to AA- with a stable optimistic outlook, and then in January it changed its future outlook from stable into negative based on frozen
economic reform in the country. It warned that the rating may be further lowered in case organizational arrangements prevent the Government from finding long and sustainable solutions regarding its funding needs.
S & P further expects that fiscal deficit will reduce over 2021 -2022 and widen again in 2023 -2024 given their oil price assumptions and the gradual tapering of oil production cuts in line with the May 2021 OPEC+ agreement.
Al-Qabas
Proposal on adding KD 600m to budget for frontlines’ gets okay
The parliamentary Budgets and Final Accounts Committee has approved the proposal of the government to add KD600 million to the budget allocated for the incentives of workers on the frontline of the fight against coronavirus.
Committee Chairman MP Bader Al-Mullah disclosed that they also approved several conditions to ensure only the deserving employees will receive the incentive.
He explained that even if the existing State budget is enough to cover the incentive by transferring money from items with surplus, the committee decided to approve the proposal in order to save time. He said transferring money from one item to another requires another proposal from the government, which will delay the disbursement of the incentive and the committee wants to avoid this. Rapporteur of the committee MP Hamdan Al-Azmi affirmed they do not want to disrupt the payment of the incentive, especially at a time when public funds estimated at billions of Kuwaiti dinars are being squandered. He added the bill allows employees, who think they are treated unjustly, to fi le a complaint.
The proposal has been included in the agenda of the special session slated for Thursday, during which the proposal is expected to be approved to pave way for the payment of the incentive to beneficiaries.
In a relevant development, MP Osama Al-Shaheen submitted a proposal to add the employees of Kuwait Flour Mills and Bakeries Company to the list of benefi ciaries of the incentive; considering the tremendous efforts they have been exerting since the start of the covid-19 crisis. Meanwhile, MPs Khalid Al-Otaibi, Abdulkareem Al-Kandari and Thamer Al-Suwait submitted a grilling motion against Minister of Interior Sheikh Thamer Ali Al-Sabah on the following issues: 1. Depriving citizens the right to hold meetings -- a right stipulated in Article 44 of the Constitution. This articles states that individuals have the right of private assembly without permission or prior notification, and the police may not attend such private meetings.
Public meetings, demonstrations, and gatherings are permitted in accordance with the conditions and manner specified by law, provided that their purpose and means are peaceful and not contrary to morals. 2. Selective enforcement of
laws, 3. Arbitrary manner of dealing with Bedouns that led to dangerous consequences, 4. Issuing decisions which violated the equal opportunity principle enshrined in articles seven and eight of the Constitution. Article Seven stipulates that justice, liberty and equality are the pillars of society;
cooperation and mutual help are the firmest bonds between citizens. Article Eight says the State safeguards the pillars of society and ensures security, tranquility and equal opportunities for citizens. 5.
Failure to address the traffic problem and rising rate of crimes and violence in the society, 6. Failure to address the lopsided demographic structure issue, 7.
Failure to respond to parliamentary queries -- a violation of Article 99 of the Constitution which states every member of the National Assembly may put to the Prime Minister and to Ministers questions with a view to clarifying matters falling within their competence. The questioner alone has the right to comment once upon the answer. National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim confirmed receiving the grilling motion and that he informed the concerned minister about it, adding the motion will be included in the agenda of the upcoming ordinary session. On the other hand, MP Farz Al-Daihani said the delegation, including MPs, that was supposed to travel to Turkey to meet with the opposition figures postponed their plan due to the current conditions related to coronavirus and the total curfew which will be imposed in Turkey starting from Saturday.
Al-Daihani pointed out the delegation and the opposition figures cannot meet in one place under such conditions, so they decided to reschedule the meeting once the situation in Turkey returns to normal. Also, MP Khalid Al-Otaibi commented on the statement of Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs Mubarak Al-Harees that the MPs who occupied the seats allotted for ministers in the session hall violated the parliamentary tradition. He asked Al-Harees to stop issuing funny statements, asking the latter: “What is more serious, violating parliamentary tradition or violating the Constitution?” He asserted that State affairs are not managed through political stubbornness, indicating all Kuwaitis are fully aware of the reason why the MPs occupied the ministers’ seats. In addition, MP Osama Al-Menawer submitted a bill on amending Amiri Decree number 12/1960 on the establishment of the Legal Advice and Legislation Department to change its name to Legal Advice, Legislation and State Lawsuits Department. The bill stipulates changing discipline councils and imposing harsher penalties on erring employees whose rank is lower than counsellor, such as dismissal. The penalties include taking disciplinary action against the erring employee who will no longer qualify for promotion. In all cases, the erring employee can fi le an appeal against the decision at the Administrative Section of the Court of Cassation.
Arab Times
