Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior

KUWAIT CITY, May 22: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah Al- Sabah disclosed that the ministry has contacted Ministry of Foreign Affairs to determine the real cost of recruiting domestic workers.In response to parliamentary questions, the minister said the procedure was necessary to serve as a method for specifying the real cost and fixing the commission value to be collected by domestic labor offices and companies, as well as for activating the role of Ministry of Commerce and Industry in line with the Consumer Protection Law.He declared that the high cost for recruiting domestic workers is due to greed of some recruitment office owners who are struggling to sustain monopoly in the domestic labor market to enable them in raising commission.Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah explained that some offices in countries from where domestic labor is recruited pay certain amounts to the workers and include it in the cost of recruitment. Some of those offices determine the cost of recruitment and increase it, because the rate of available supply is less than the need of the market.Meanwhile, the study on asset evaluation of the fuel stations which the government is planning to privatize has been completed along with the feasibility study required by the concerned bodies for supervision of Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Oil and Ministry of Commerce and Industry. They said the move to privatize some fuel stations to help youths in terms of administration and ownership is within the framework of the government’s plan to expedite implementation of the procedures related to the National Small and Medium Enterprises Fund. Concerning the changes of these procedures, the sources indicated about executive plans in place for soft financing of relevant projects, provided they meet the allotted conditions from the side of the youths