In accordance with the national initiatives looking to level out manpower allocation across various industries in the country, private companies including foreign banks have expressed challenges as to realizing the goals set by the government.
This shows the readiness (or the lack) of the industries as well as society in general in terms of running a predominantly Kuwaiti society, which for the longest time has been reinforced by foreign talents to achieve its current position in the region.
Kuwaitizing Manpower in Foreign Banks by 70% Not Possible at the Moment
In line with this, foreign banks have reportedly expressed that they are not yet prepared to raise the national employment rate to at least 70 percent at all levels of employment, which include executive positions, as shared in a report by Al-Rai Daily.
According to the report, foreign banks in Kuwait will come up with a coordinated move to raise the issue to the Central Bank of Kuwait. This is in response to the latter’s instruction to all banks in the State to strengthen their efforts to qualify national manpower – a trend that operates within the framework of professional procedures showing an important improvement to the target ratio, following a timetable set by the government, highlighting the current employment ratios of each bank, and how they reach this goal in executive positions.
The struggle to meet target figures in the banking and finance sector stems from the firms’ small volume of operations and a small number of employees in each bank.
Furthermore, majority of foreign branches are only recently established (about 11 years ago) particularly back in 2005, where the HSBC, is reportedly the first foreign bank to open a branch in the local market.
Of note, each foreign bank operating in Kuwait has only one branch, unlike local banks, which have several branches to serve their customers.