KUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday passed three important legislations less than a week before the crucial ruling of the constitutional court on petitions challenging the amendment of the electoral law that could prematurely end the life of the house. MPs unanimously passed in the first reading a law to establish a Kuwait telecom commission which will supervise the telecommunications sector in the country. MPs said Kuwait is the last country in the Gulf which does not have a telecom commission. The new authority will have powers to organize the mobile and landline phone sector in addition to the Internet. The law has been under deliberations between the government and the previous assemblies for around a decade.
The Assembly also overwhelmingly passed new amendments to the Kuwait Airways privatization law requiring the government to contribute to the financing of the purchase of new aircraft and to pay its accumulated debt between 2004 and 2012, estimated at over KD 440 million. The new amendments also introduced a new article to the law to allow the government to hold a golden share in the new company which would give the government the power to veto decisions on strategic issues. The government said the golden share will make the company less attractive to strategic investors. According to the law, 35 percent of the new airline company will be sold to a local or foreign investor, 50 percent to citizens, 10 percent to the government while five percent will go to current and retired Kuwaiti employees.
KAC has already been transformed from a corporation into a company working on commercial basis. Under the law, KAC will operate as a company until it starts posting profits, and then the 35-percent stake will be offered for sale. A number of MPs questioned why the government should invest so much money into the airline when it plans to sell it to the private sector. Last month, KAC announced it had reached an initial agreement to buy 25 Airbus aircraft with delivery beginning in 2019 and lease 22 others with the first planes expected next month.
MPs also passed amendments to the housing welfare law to provide unmarried Kuwaiti women or those married to foreigners equal rights with Kuwaiti men regarding housing care. Under the law, Kuwaiti women are entitled to an interest-free loan of KD 70,000 and a monthly housing allowance of KD 150 until they are provided with the loan or a government house. The government did not vote with the law which was passed in the first and second rounds, but to become effective, the government's acceptance is crucial.
© Kuwait Times 2013
