KUWAIT: The National Assembly's financial and economic affairs committee said yesterday it had received initial approvals from various government agencies for a proposal to establish a company to recruit domestic helpers. Head of the committee MP Faisal Al-Shaye said the Public Institution for Social Security and Kuwait Investment Authority have expressed a desire to contribute to the company.
The committee is still waiting to hear from Kuwait Airways, which has been offered a 10-percent stake. Shaye said it was agreed that all cooperative societies will also participate in the proposed company through the Union of Cooperative Societies, which means that a majority of Kuwaiti citizens will be shareholders in the company since they own shares in cooperative societies.
He said that the committee was informed by the commerce ministry that there was no need to establish the proposed company through a legislation as a decision is sufficient for this purpose.
The idea was floated by MP Kamel Al-Awadhi, who was supported by over 30 lawmakers, with the aim to set up a company to start recruiting domestic helpers at reasonable costs after prices of recruitment skyrocketed due to a large number of private offices.
Awadhi said yesterday that he obtained official correspondence from the Kuwaiti Embassy in India saying that the actual cost of recruiting an Indian maid is around KD 348, whereas the current rate exceeds KD 1,000. The idea of the company was rejected by the Assembly's health and labor committee, which government agencies had refused to take part in it.
Members of that committee also said that recruitment should remain with private offices. Shaye said that ministries concerned with the issue like the ministries of interior, health and social affairs and labor will also participate in the company's proposed capital of KD 1 million.
As a result, the committee deferred a decision on the issue until all replies arrive from all sides, Shaye said. In another development, the appeals court yesterday upheld a ruling by the lower court which supported a decision by the commerce ministry to close down Al-Watan newspaper and revoke its commercial license. Lawyer of Al-Watan Rashed Al-Radaan said he will challenge the ruling at the cassation court, whose rulings are final. The daily has been shut for several months but has been publishing through its website.
The ministry had said that the daily failed to convene the general assembly of the company despite accumulating losses exceeding 75 percent of its capital.
Also, a number of MPs yesterday submitted a request to allocate two hours of the next Assembly session to allow lawmakers to pay tribute to former speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi, who died on Thursday on a flight from Turkey to Kuwait.
Khorafi was speaker between 1999 and 2011 when the National Assembly was dissolved, and he decided not to run in elections. He was first elected as MP in 1975.
© Kuwait Times 2015
