KUWAIT CITY, Jan 4: National Assembly Speaker Ahmed Al- Saadoun has invited the government and MPs to the parliamentary sessions scheduled for Jan 9-10, 2024. Following are the items in the agenda of both sessions:
- Vote on the minutes of the previous session;
- Parliamentary queries;
- Amiri Speech delivered on Oct 31, 2023;
- Reports of the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee about the bills on reforming the constituencies, and amending the National Assembly Law and Penal Code number 16/1960;
- Report of the Interior and Defense Affairs Committee on the proposed amendment of the Foreigners Residency Law; - Report of the fact-finding committee tasked to investigate the armament deals (Eurofighter and Caracal helicopters);
- Report of the Oil and Energy Committee on the proposal to establish a national shareholding company for advanced petrochemical industries;
- Reports of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee on these proposals — amend the law on establishing the Public Institution for Social Security to grant zero-interest loans to retirees, increase the cost of living allowance, transform Kuwait Airways Corporation into a shareholding national company, and exempt the heirs of those who obtained loans from Kuwait Credit Bank from paying the remaining installments in case of the death of the borrowers;
- Reports of the Interior and Defense Affairs Committee on the proposal to amend the Traffic and Police laws;
- Report of the Illegal Residents Affairs Committee about the bills on granting social, civil, and career rights to Bedouns;
- Report of the Human Resources Development Committee on the proposed amendment of Civil Service Commission Law number 15/1979, - Report of the Public Funds Protection Committee on the proposed amendment of the Public Funds Protection Law;
- Report of the Health, Social, and Labor Affairs Committee on the proposed amendment of the Cooperative Societies Law;
- Report of the Family, Women and Children Affairs Committee on the proposal to grant rights to the children of Kuwaiti women married to non- Kuwaitis;
- Report of the Foreign Affairs Committee on the military cooperation treaty between Kuwait and Turkey;
- Request of several MPs to discuss the strategic alternative to the salary scale with the government; - Request to discuss the factors leading to price hikes;
- Request to discuss the procedures and criteria adopted to fill up vacant supervisory posts;
- Request to form a fact-finding committee to investigate the Dhaman Hospital issue and violations recorded by the State Audit Bureau.

On the other hand, Chairman of the Education, Culture and Guidance Affairs Committee MP Hamad Al-Elyan has disclosed that the committee, along with members of the Technical Office, will travel to Qatar on Friday to personally look into the educational sector there. He said the official trip, which will last for four days, will include meetings with senior officials at the Qatari Ministry of Education to discuss the strategy that put education in Qatar in first place among Arab countries and fourth in the world as per the internationally accredited indexes.

He confirmed that the visit is aimed at transferring the Qatari education experience to Kuwait, while the committee will use such experience as a reference for the completion of its reports on the relevant bills. He added the committee will discuss these reports with the senior officials at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in preparation for the session scheduled for April 30, 2024, to vote on the bills about the development of the local educational sector and its outputs.

Meanwhile, MP Saud Al-Asfour forwarded queries to the Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy and acting Minister of Public Works Jassem Al-Ostad about the statement of former Secretary General of the Sustainable Peaceful Nuclear Energy Committee Ahmed Beshara in 2010 that “by 2022, Kuwait would have established four nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts per hour.

The necessary steps are being taken to float the tenders and allocate the sites for the project.” Al-Asfour revealed that in 2010, Kuwait and Japan signed an agreement to cooperate in the development of nuclear energy and to push for the export of nuclear energy as part of the State’s strategy to boost the economy. He added Kuwait signed a treaty on nuclear cooperation with France in April 2010 to allow ARIVA Company to export nuclear energy to Kuwait. Based on the above, the lawmaker wants to know the achievements of the committee since its establishment till date, if Kuwait has benefited from the agreements it signed with Japan and France in 2010, and if the ministry has a strategy to establish nuclear energy reactors.

If yes, he requested details, including the terms and schedule of the establishment. MP Majed Al-Mutairi asked Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Oil, Economic and Investment Affairs Saad Al-Barrak to provide him with information about the fire incident at the gathering center of Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) on Dec 3, 2023. He inquired if the incident resulted in death or injuries, the period and cost needed to repair the damages and put the center back to full operation if a factfinding committee was formed to investigate the incident, a copy of the committee’s report if the answer is ‘yes’, if the incident occurred in an area that belongs to a contracting company, copy of the contract if the answer is ‘yes’, measures taken to prevent the recurrence of such incidents, and the department at the Ministry of Oil tasked to ensure strict compliance with the safety and security regulations.

MP Hamad Al-Elyan asked Minister of Finance Fahd Al-Jarallah to provide him with copies of all decisions issued by the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA) regarding the Abdally Economic Project. He said KDIPA has taken the necessary steps to float the tender for the project as per circular number 1/2023 regarding public tenders issued by the Ministry of Finance, specifically the stipulation on obligating the foreign investor to establish and manage infrastructure and enterprises in the project site for a term of 50 years. He affirmed that the project is covered by Partnership Projects Law number 116/2014.

By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff