The Minister of Commerce and Industry Khaled Al-Roudhan called on to all bodies subject to the ministry to submit a schedule for replacing expats holding posts in the government with citizens, as shared in a report by the Kuwait Times.
The ministry’s decision follows the plan of the Civil Service Commission’s (CSC) on replacing expats with citizens in the country’s bid to fully “Kuwaitize” its labour sectors by 2023.
Kuwait Calls to Limit Egpytian and Filipino Communities
With the labour reform across all sectors set to be rolled out by authorities soon, the CSC is looking to instate citizens across a variety of sectors in Kuwait. The goal is for citizens to fill up 100% of the total workforce in administrative, PR, media, IT, development, follow-up, and statistics sectors in the next five years; 95% in economic, financial, scientific, and commercial sectors; and 80% in the arts.
In accordance with Kuwait’s blanket policy to replace expats in the public sector with citizens, the CSC has called on to all state departments to “Kuwaitize” all committees they form with the only exception of specialized consultancy posts.
The National Assembly’s Employment Committee was not able to hold a meeting last October 20 for a lack of resource to study the alarming issue of unemployment among Kuwaitis to come up with a report for the Assembly regarding the said issue.
The committee was established to compel the government to create jobs for its citizens, primarily by freeing up posts held by expats in the public sector and by putting up incentives for nationals to seek jobs in the private sector.
Also, MP Mohammad Al-Dallal pointed out the need for the National Assembly to regulate the growing numbers of expat communities in the country, primarily those among Egyptian and Filipino communities.
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