Kuwait should reduce its expat population to 30 per cent from the current 70 per cent, Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah said, amid the coronavirus pandemic and a slump in oil prices.
Foreigners account for nearly 3.4 million of Kuwait’s 4.8 million people, and that’s a “big imbalance, and we have a future challenge to redress this imbalance,” Sheikh Sabah told the top editors of local newspapers.
Despite running one of the Gulf’s smallest crisis stimulus packages, top lender National Bank of Kuwait predicts the country’s shortfall will reach 40 per cent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year that started on April 1, the most since the 1991 Gulf War and its aftermath.
In his comments, the prime minister emphasised the need for Kuwait to diversify its economy away from its 90 per cent dependence on oil.
He also said two dozen companies had been referred to public prosecutors based on information they broke laws by trading in residency permits, a practice that illegally brings overseas workers into the country and transfers them between employers.
“We are responsible for everyone who lives on this land and the residency trade has exhausted the state and the services in all institutions, especially when dealing with the current situation,” he said.
Coronavirus in Kuwait - in pictures
Sheikh Sabah's comments follow a renewed push by members of parliament to reduce the number of overseas workers, particularly unskilled labour. They are proposing a quota system in addition to replacing expat government employees, estimated at 100,000, with Kuwaitis.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled for later this year, and anti-expat rhetoric is attractive to some voters, especially when it concerns well-paid government jobs. At the end of 2019, only 19 per cent of the Kuwaiti workforce was in the private sector.
Foreigners have accounted for the majority of Kuwait’s virus cases as the disease spread among migrant workers living in crowded labour camps.
While Kuwait eased its 24-hour lockdown on Sunday, some areas remain under isolation in a bid to stem the outbreak.
Kuwait’s Ministry of Health announced 562 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, bringing the number of infections in the country to 29,921.
Six new deaths brought the death toll to 236.
So far, 17,223 people have recovered from the infection.
Coronavirus around the region - in pictures
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New schools in Dubai
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Trolls World Tour
Directed by: Walt Dohrn, David Smith
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake
Rating: 4 stars
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
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Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
'Laal Kaptaan'
Director: Navdeep Singh
Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain
Rating: 2/5
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
World Cup final
Who: France v Croatia
When: Sunday, July 15, 7pm (UAE)
TV: Game will be shown live on BeIN Sports for viewers in the Mena region
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Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
The biog
Name: Atheja Ali Busaibah
Date of birth: 15 November, 1951
Favourite books: Ihsan Abdel Quddous books, such as “The Sun will Never Set”
Hobbies: Reading and writing poetry
The five pillars of Islam
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5