Lack of govt initiative cited

KUWAIT CITY, July 8: The parliamentary Human Resources Development Committee intends to go ahead in preparing its report on the demographic imbalance and reducing the number of expatriates entering the country as it noticed the lack of seriousness on the part of the government, which has been late in responding despite its promise to submit its own vision and response to the proposals quoting parliamentary sources.

Sources said the committee gave the government two weeks to submit its response to proposals regarding the demographic imbalance, but the government did not send anything.

Sources disclosed the concerned public institutions asked the committee to give them an unlimited period under the pretext that they need more time to prepare the required data, prompting the committee to hold a meeting without inviting the government and then submit its report to the National Assembly for voting.

In the same context, Human Resources Development Committee Chairman MP Khalil Al-Saleh affirmed that the committee gave the decision-makers enough time to fix the demographic imbalance. “We were surprised as they were not ready to present their reports on the population structure,” he added. He pointed out the government formed the National Committee five years ago to address the demographic structure issue but it has not achieved anything so far. He asked: “How did the number of expatriates who hold intermediate certificates and below reach 800,000?” (Al Rai)