Driver's licence only for graduate expats in Kuwait

Kuwait City/Dubai: Expatriates in Kuwait must be university graduates and draw a salary of not less than $1,370 (about Dh5,000) a month in order to obtain a driver's licence, the interior ministry said yesterday.

The new rules, which are effective immediately, are designed to reduce the number of vehicles on the roads which are suffering serious bottlenecks.

Expatriates seeking a licence must also have legally lived in the country for at least two years, according to the ministerial decree.

But Kuwaiti officials said the decision was practical.

"It is a practical decision no more, no less," Lieutenant Colonel Adel Hashash, head of Public Relations Department at the ministry, told Gulf News.

"It complies with the general policy of the Interior Ministry to limit problems on road and traffic congestion," he said.

The decision will encourage low income groups "to use public transportation", Hashash said, adding that the decision was not new but an amended version of a three-year-old rule.

Previously, expatriates with a monthly salary of about $850 (about Dh3,100) were allowed to apply for a driver's licence.

The new regulations exempted 22 professions, including doctors, teachers, judges and accountants, from some of the requirements, he said.

However, Gulf News found out that residents of the UAE were sceptical about the practicality of the Kuwaiti decision.

Brigadier Mohammad Saif Al Zafein, Director of the General Traffic Department of Dubai Police, yesterday told Gulf News that he respects the decision, but questions whether the transportation system is advanced enough in Kuwait to implement such a decision.

"It will be difficult to implement the Kuwaiti decision in the UAE because the conditions here are different. Such a decision requires an advanced transportation system like the one in the US so that implementation is easier. I am not familiar with the traffic system in Kuwait, which makes it difficult for me to anticipate whether it will be successfully implemented there."

Saif Ahmad Bel Hasa, owner of Bel Hasa Driving Institute, said obtaining a drivers' licence is a basic human right. "People should not be deprived of a driver's licence because that would be limiting their lives by preventing them from taking their families out on holidays," he told Gulf News.

"The UAE respects human rights, and such a decision cannot be implemented here. When a person obtains a driving licence, his life changes, his income increases, his productivity improves and he adds to the country's economy."

Rihab Saif, a UAE national student, said the Kuwaiti decision is unfair. "What will happen if expatriates face an emergency ... what will they do without a driver's licence?"

What do you think of the Kuwaiti decision?
Write to us at letter2editor@gulfnews.com

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