Panel plans to reduce expats to 10% in Kuwait's public sector

KUWAIT CITY - In its efforts to limit the rate of expatriates in public sector to 10 percent of the entire workforce, which would be restricted to the medical and educational professions, the Parliamentary Committee on Replacement and Employment will meet soon to put the finishing touches to its report for onward submission to the National Assembly before the beginning of the next parliamentary round.

The committee made some observations concerning employment batches, the number of expatriates, lack of a clearcut mechanism to deal with unemployment and arbitrary employment of many batches among job-seekers in a manner that could heighten the level of redundancy.

It also noted “no declaration was made to indicate the mode of dealing with those who turned down employment amid lack of seriousness in handling Civil Service Decision No.2/2016 concerning contracts with non-Kuwaitis.

In a statement, member of the committee MP Saleh Ashour considered it unreasonable for the number of expatriates to reach 94,000 in the government departments.

He said the government needs only doctors, laboratory technicians and teachers, affirming that Kuwaitis can comfortably replace 35,000 of the expatriate workforce or at least Kuwaitize half of their number within two to three years. “I do not see any sign of seriousness from the government as regards the replacement issue”, he said, noting the committee will present a detailed report supported by statistics and recommendations for the National Assembly to take the right decision.