Manama: Kuwait's Government Manpower Restructuring Programme (GMRP) is planning to recruit 20,000 Kuwaitis in the next two years, the project secretary-general has said.
"The programme has contributed to the recruitment of over 70,000 Kuwaiti citizens in non-governmental agencies over the past 10 years, thus cutting joblessness rate to 4.4 per cent, Walid Al Wohaib, said.
"The number of Kuwaiti workers in the private sector rose from 1.3 per cent in 2001 to 6.2 per cent at present. The programme has played a key role in alleviating the problem of Kuwaiti layoffs from the private sector," he said at a news conference to mark the country's national festivals, Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) reported.
The current development projects include national labour training programmes, a national labour development centre, creating jobs for Kuwaiti women in the private sector and setting up an incubator for small and medium-sized projects, he said.
The programme's future blueprints include suggestions of employment centres at trade complexes, Kuwaiti capability and experience centers, functional guidance services and public awareness promotion programmes.
According to Al Wohaib, the programme seeks to alleviate financial burdens on the state budget by spurring Kuwaitis to join the private sector, he said.
"Since 2010, the programme has been trying to create a quantum shift by means of finding a fresh system based on the provision of technical, material and moral support for citizens wishing to join the private sector," he said.
"Using the help of the Ministry of Education and some other state agencies, the programme is willing to train and qualify primary and secondary students to working in the private sector."
The new labour law that stipulates protecting the rights of workers from arbitrary layoff, provides Kuwaiti citizens working in the private sector with adequate safeguards, he said.
