Kuwait: New hiring procedures to reduce expats and achieve Kuwaitization
Several governmental agencies to achieve quota annually
Kuwait City: The Minister of Trade and commerce, Faisal Al Medlej, revealed that the Civil Service Bureau has drawn up a report to reduce the number of expats working in the public sector in order to achieve Kuwaitization, a governmental policy aimed at creating a 100 per cent Kuwaiti workforce, Al Anba reported.
Al Medlej pointed out that several government agencies are required to reduce the number of expats and replace them with Kuwaitis annually. Within two years, five specialities should achieve 100 per cent of Kuwaitization. Other specialties, like education and criminal forensics, should reach 97 per cent Kuwaitization. The lowest quota is for jobs in the farming industry, as they should reach at least 75 per cent of a Kuwaiti workforce.
Majority Kuwaiti workforce
The Kuwaitization policy, which was first introduced in 2017, works towards creating a Kuwaiti majority workforce, in the public sector, by 2021.
Although in December 2019, there were around 120,000 expats working in governmental positions, that number has dropped as there have been massive layoffs in recent months. In November, the Ministry of Social Affairs terminated the contract of 120 expats.
In September, the Civil Service Commission announced that since 2017, 13 out of the 16 government agencies have achieved Kuwaitization.
Back in August, various government agencies began laying off expats, especially those that are working in non-technical fields. Then a few weeks later, around 1,183 job contacts for expats working across 48 governmental agencies were cancelled.