According to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), “Kuwait’s Ambassador to India Fahad Ahmad Al-Awadhi urged increase of trade between India and Kuwait through boosting investments,” (Nov 28, 2015). The context of the Ambassador’s announcement was the “inaugurating the commercial operations of NAPESCO India, a subsidiary of NAPESCO International Petroleum Services Company (Kuwait) at Special Economic Zone of Chennai” (See Arab Times, Nov 29, 2015). In addition to the need to increase our trade with India, I call upon our government to allow the recruitment of more Indian expats. Enjoying a very positive reputation in Kuwait, Indians also top expats in our country. I argued in one of my articles about Indian expats, published previously in The Arab Times that “India is currently transforming to become one of the fast growing economies in the world. This Indian economic development would not have started without the original and superb work ethics in Indian culture.” I would even argue that as part of our hard working and law-abiding Asian expatriate population, our Indian friends and partners are contributing to the development of our economy and culture. Known for their harmonious and positive integration in our Kuwaiti society, our local Indian population are highly reliable, honest, law-abiding and hard working. In fact, it would not be far-fetched to argue here that the more we introduce Indian professionals and workers into our local economy the more development we will witness. For example, our Indian friends and partners have been contributing positively in our health sector, Insurance economy, accounting, technical sector … etc. In addition to bringing more diversity into our large expatriate population, our Indian friends are known for their respect to our laws, our local tradition, reflecting a rich historical relationship between Kuwait and India.

I call upon our government to increase our trade with India, allow the recruitment of more Indian health-service professionals, allowing all our Indian friends to bring their loved ones to Kuwait, the increase in Kuwaiti investment in the Indian economy. Our Asian expats bring into Kuwait the richness of their native cultures; they develop our local economy and inject a positive spirit in our national wellbeing. Such hard working and professional expats value time and are committed to excellence, productivity and many of them consider Kuwait as their second home. In fact, it is very usual for Asian and Western expats to feel at home in Kuwait because the majority of them show respect to our national traditions and culture.

Indian expats have been contributing for decades in the development of other Gulf economies like the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We in Kuwait should grasp any opportunity to increase the number of our Indian expats because they are more reliable, hard working, law-abiding and show the greatest respect to our culture and tradition.

By Khaled Aljenfawi[email protected]