LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2018

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Mustafa Abdulbar

KUNA photoMinister of State for Housing Affairs Dr Jenan Boushehri with Qatari Minister of

Transport, Communications Jassim Al-Sulaiti.

Photo from the event held at Bangladesh Embassy Hall.

EPA to fl oat tender to establish new stations for monitoring the quality of air

Bangladesh Biman marks 46th anniversary

77 SME owners benefi t from decision to display products in coop societies

Bangladesh Biman the national airline of Bangladesh observed their 46th Anniversary recently at the multipurpose Hall of Bangla-desh Embassy. His Excellency S.M. Abul Kalam, Ambassador of Bangladesh in the State of Kuwait was present as a chief guest at the gathering and cut a cake along-with Country Manager and Station

Manager of Biman Bangladesh Airlines. During the celebration HE the Ambassador instructed the Country manager to provide better service to the passengers of the airline. He also appealed to the Bangla-desh community in Kuwait to pa-tronize the Bangladesh Biman so that Biman can achieve their goal

of development. Among others, Counsellor (Labour) Abdul Latif Khan, Counsellor and Head of Chancery Md Anisuzzaman, First Secretary (Passport & Visa) Md Jahirul Islam Khan, Sonali Bank Representative Md Safayet Hos-sain Patwari and other offi cials of the Embassy were present on that day.

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 8: Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and State Minister for Economic Affairs Hind Al-Sabeeh revealed that 77 owners of small enterprises have benefited from the decision to allocate areas for their products in cooperative so-cieties, reports Al-Anba daily.

Speaking to the daily, Al-Sabeeh

affirmed this is in line with the deci-sion to allot 20 percent of the ten-ders of the Ministry of Social Af-fairs and Labor and State Ministry for Economic Affairs for the owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Meanwhile, the Ministry of So-cial Affairs has distributed annual

performance evaluation forms to all sectors in order to evaluate the performance of staff in each depart-ment within two weeks at the lat-est, reports Al-Anba daily quoting sources.

Sources said the Personnel Affairs Committee will soon hold meetings to study and adopt the performance

reports, hinting that the promotion decision will be issued in February.

On the other hand, Undersecre-tary Saad Al-Kharaaz has affirmed that the ministry is keen on filling up vacant leadership posts. He added decisions were issued to fill 12 lead-ership posts including directors, su-pervisors and heads of departments.

Furthermore, the Environment Public Authority (EPA) intends to float a tender to establish new sta-tions for monitoring the quality of air and level of pollution, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting a reliable source.

The source revealed the number of existing fixed and mobile stations

totaled 28 – 15 are affiliated to the authority and 13 to the Oil Ministry. He said the new stations will be dis-tributed to different areas, particu-larly the new residential cities.

The source explained this step is part of the pollution monitoring project and development of program for improving the quality of air.

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 8, (Agencies): Minister of State for Housing Affairs and Minister of State for Services Affairs Dr Jenan Boushehri re-ceived on Monday Minister of Trans-port and Communi-cations in the State of Qatar Jassim Al-Sulaiti.

Both ministers discussed ways to develop bilateral relations and strengthen-ing bilateral cooperation in various fi elds especially in developing national plans.

Boushehri affirmed the strong social, economic and historic relations between Ku-wait and Qatar and the keen-ness of the state of Kuwait to promote relations to serve the common interests of peoples of both countries.

On his side, Minister Al-Sulaiti expressed hope that the visit would achieve the desired goals in the interests of the two countries.

Meanwhile, it seems the plan to benefit from Chinese expertise in the construction of new cities, based on the recommendation of the Coun-cil of Ministers, will expose some problems and obsta-cles associated with the first practical implementation of the model by a Chinese com-pany supervising the second contract project at Al-Mutla’a Residential City constituting 18,519 housing units, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The daily quoting a source noted an official verbal complaint has been submit-ted to the Chinese Embassy concerning the company’s plan to back down on the execution works. The com-pany was trying to blame the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) for errors in the estimated financial cost of the contract, which was awarded for KD 215 million. The sum covers the infrastructure for eight hous-ing districts and sub-power transformers.

In response to a request by the company for a variation order, the authority objected to the demand and insisted the works should continue as pre-viously agreed to avoid pen-alties and financial fines. The letter indicated the penalties will include banning Chinese companies from partaking in other housing development projects in future.

A special emphasis was laid on the Silk City project, which will affect the position of China as a major contender for executing future projects. It revealed that former Minis-ter of Housing Affairs Yasir Abul had once rejected the plan for a variation order and obliged the company to ex-ecute the project without any change or delay. The current board also rejected a similar request lately; stressing the company was responsible for the errors, and the author-ity has the right to withdraw the project in case of a clear shortcoming.

KU to hold 2nd Int’l forum on computer science

‘Market to adapt to consequences quickly’

Al-Melham rules out possibility ofcrisis affecting Kuwait real-estate

Housing minister discusses withQatari offi cial bilateral relations

Acting Dean of the Faculty of Com-puter Science and Engineering at Kuwait University Professor Mustafa Abdulbar has announced that the sec-ond international forum on Computer Science and Engineering will be held from March 11-13, 2018.

Abdulbar disclosed the forum will focus on a number of important issues

such as information security, program upgrade, high performance computer systems, smart cities and sustainable energy.

He added the forum will host a number of professors from different universities around the world where they will exchange experiences in this fi eld.

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 8: CEO of Blue Print Shareholding Company Meshal Al-Melham ruled out the possibility of a crisis affecting the real-estate sector in Kuwait due to the recent decisions related to expatriates, reports Al-Rai daily.

He said the mar-ket will adapt to the c o n s e q u e n c e s quickly, affirming that the matter is related to demo-graphic reform and not expulsion of expatriates.

Al-Melham reit-erated that the mar-ket will be able to adjust to the reduced number of expatri-ates, indicating that trade and investment movement in the real estate sector has declined recently due to worries over the increased water and electricity tariffs.

He revealed that the recent fall in the prices of houses is part of the process of correcting the path following a period of unjustified hike in the real-estate prices, affirming that this is the way the real estate sector corrects its mistakes.

Al-Melham explained that there are two reasons behind Kuwaiti citizens’ tendency to buy real estate properties overseas. The first reason is personal. Since some citizens often travel to certain countries for studies

or medical treatments there, they choose to buy real estate there. The second reason is related to investments.

He insisted that the main problem in the real estate sector in Kuwait is that the cost of a building is KD 200,000 to KD 400,000, and that of a flat is about KD 80,000. On the other hand, the cost of a flat in Britain is 75 percent lesser (about KD 20,000) with a yearly revenue rate higher than five percent.

Meanwhile, revenues of the Governmental Tests Center in the Ministry of Public Works increased remarkably in the previous year – around KD 88,000, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting sources.

Sources disclosed the abovementioned amount includes fees for tests and accredi-tation of certificates at the center which conducted 8,185 tests within the same year.Sources attributed the remarkable rev-enue increase to various factors such as the Constructional Laboratories Department’s entry of 170 new tests to the center after determining the technical specifications of a huge quantity of construction materials.

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Public Works Ministry Undersecretary Eng Awatif Al-Ghunaim has adopted the promotion degrees for 480 employees based on seniority according to the deci-sions of the ministry and bylaws of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), reports Al-Anba daily.

PAHW refuses variation order by Chinese company

Al-Roumi signs contract: Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Hus-sam Al-Roumi on Thursday signed a contract for the maintenance of roads and squares of the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate.

The contract covers little construc-tion work, and overall maintenance of roads, squares, service areas and parking places within the province, the Ministry of Public Works said.

It added that the contract is worth KD 5.3 million ($17.5 million). (KUNA)

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Internet for offi cials: The Sec-retariat General of the Cabinet will provide high-speed Internet for its of-fi cials, reports Al-Shahid daily quoting sources.

On the other hand, sources said the Secretariat General is looking for an effi cient mechanism for the preparation and decoration of buildings of public institutions on the occasion of the National and Liberation days. Sources added the company specialized in this fi eld and offers the lowest price will be chosen.

The Central Bank of Kuwait has

approved a request presented by the government for a loan of KD 25 billion, reports Al-Rai daily.

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Finance to limit defi cit: Minis-try of Finance said it is planning to maintain the limit of the defi cit under KD 3 billion per year until 2021/2022 fi scal year.

Furthermore, the State Audit Bureau disclosed that there is a wide interest for Kuwaiti bonds abroad and that they received the lowest benefi ts.

It stressed that Kuwait resorting to receiving loans is not strange, provided the loans are spent on the capital pro-jects.

The bureau recommended suspen-sion of deduction of ten percent of the oil revenues for the future generations fund during the period of budget defi cit.

In addition, the Central Bank of Kuwait has been in two minds about the suggestion to suspend the deduction of ten percent for the future generations fund and merging the sovereign funds with the public budget, considering such solutions as temporary ones that have nothing to do with the root cause of the problem. It stressed the need for a law to be passed by the parliament.

News in Brief

Yasir Abul

Al-Melham