KUWAIT CITY, Oct 5: MP Abdulkareem Al-Kandari forwarded queries to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Muhammad and Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdullah Essa Al-Salman about a report quoting the Indian ambassador to Kuwait as saying that there are one million Indians currently working in Kuwait and his country intends to increase this number. He cited the statistics issued by the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) stating the Indians constitute 21 percent of the total population, 14 percent for the Egyptians and six percent for the Bangladeshis.

He wants to know if Kuwait signed an agreement with India or Egypt to receive workers from these countries according to the specified numbers. He also asked Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Economic and Investment Affairs Khalifa Hamada if the Central Bank of Kuwait, local banks or monitoring institutions filed complaints against individuals or companies suspected of involvement in money laundering.

He pointed out the US Department of Treasury released reports including Kuwaiti citizens and companies involved in money laundering and financing terrorism through some entities related to Hezbollah. He wants to know if the ministry has conducted investigations to determine how these citizens and companies circumvented monitoring procedures and systems to transfer money to terrorist groups. By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff