Page 13 - Kuwait-Three-Years-Business-Outlook-2019-2020-2021

KHOA

Kuwaitisation drive

We at Fitch Solutions expect limited progress on 'Kuwaitisation' will
push the government to enact further reforms aiming to integrate
Kuwaiti nationals into the private sector in 2019 and 2020.

 That said, with public sector employment likely to remain
significantly more attractive for citizens, such policies will likely be
Kuwait met with limited success, especially in the private sector where the
share of nationals declined from 4.5% to 4.4% between 2016 and
2018 – highlighting the need for new and improved measures to
Politics reverse this trend.

 Against this backdrop, in January 2019 the Public Authority of
Manpower (PAM) announced upward revisions to hiring quotas (the
share of Kuwaitis in new hires) and introduced a new KWD300
(equivalent to around USD990) fee – to be implemented in June 2019
– for each license granted to expats in sectors not restricted by the
quota.

Fitch Solutions believe this marks the beginning of a new
government push towards 'Kuwaitisation' in the private sector, largely
driven by political demands from parliament which is unusually vocal
by GCC standards.

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