Kuwait: Healthcare Professional Licence Requirements

Arab Times, 31 March 2024: Kuwait’s Health Ministry has issued a Ministerial Decision outlining the general conditions and regulations for licensing healthcare professionals in the public and private sectors.

Under Kuwait Ministerial Decision No. 71/2024, resident doctors and registered assistants are banned from practicing in the private sector unless they work in licensed training establishments, which are supervised.

Health professionals seeking promotion to higher technical levels in the private sector must obtain 100 educational units of continuing medical education approved by the Kuwait Institute for Medical Specialties.

Individuals over 65 must take part in medical examinations specified by the Ministry to ensure they meet the fitness conditions required before being granted or renewing licences.

These medical examinations must be repeated every two years.

Titles and years of experience required for healthcare professionals in the public sector apply to the private sector, provided the experience is in the same specialty.

General practitioners can work in private clinics, health dispensaries and hospitals, but they must start in accident departments, outpatient clinics or hospital wards under supervision. They cannot perform specialist surgery.

Dentists at general practitioner level can work in private clinics, dental centres and hospitals but must begin at dental departments in outpatient and accident clinics. They cannot work in operating rooms.

The regulations have been issued to ensure the quality and standardisation of medical care provided in both the public and private healthcare sectors in the country.

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Kuwait: Real Estate Property Description Certificate Controls

Alrai, 23 March 2024: The Director General of Kuwait’s Municipality, Engineer Saud Al-Dabbous has directed governorate branches to review the last inspection and inspect all engineering plans and their conformity with the technical requirements of properties before issuing a real estate description certificate.

Sources have said the Director-General is in the process of establishing a committee to research the validity of the description certificates issued throughout the last year.

They pointed out that description certificates have a direct relationship to the issue of building violations and single people’s housing in private and model housing areas.

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Kuwait: Family Visit Visa Rules May be Amended

Kuwait Times, 14 March 2024: Kuwait’s Interior Ministry is understood to be considering amending family visit visa rules in the country.

They are understood to be considering announcing any amendments by June 2024.

The amendments being considered are understood to relate to the salary condition for family visit visas.

The national carrier airfare requirement could also be amended and there could be exceptions for nationals of countries who do not have direct airline connections between them and Kuwait or where there are no flights for Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways for security reasons or other reasons.

The decision to consider amendments to the conditions for obtaining this type of visa was made following a security study,

This study was carried out by the Interior Ministry.

The speculation comes a month or so after the government announced changes to the rules for obtaining this type of visa.

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Kuwait: Airport Tender Investigation Urged

Alrai, 3 March 2024: Kuwait’s Public Works Minister and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs has urged the supervisory authorities to launch an investigation into a tender for Package No 3 related to aircraft parking and service buildings for the new passenger terminal at Kuwait Airport.

They requested an impartial investigation committee be established.

This committee should include members from the University of Kuwait, the Fatwa and Legislation Department and the Finance Ministry.

Members should commit to the principle of transparency and application of the law in order to preserve public funds in line with Article 17 of the Constitution.

The committee would be responsible for verifying the award procedures and confirming their validity or highlighting any suspicions in an urgent report which must also include the names of any violators.

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Kuwait: National Assembly Dissolved

Al Riyadh, 15 February 2024: An Emiri Decree dissolving the country’s National Assembly has been issued.

News to this effect was aired on Kuwait TV.

It stated: “The National Assembly was dissolved due to the Council’s transgression of constitutional principles in highlighting the respect of the Supreme Leader and deliberately using expressions.”

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Kuwait: Auditing Activities Facilitation Circular Issued

Alrai, 10 February 2024: The Undersecretary of Kuwait’s Audit Bureau has issued an auditing activities facilitation Circular.

The Circular has been sent to entities subject to supervision by the Bureau.

It aims to promote cooperation and facilitate the Audit Bureau’s mission.

It also aims to organise the Bureau’s relationship with these entities to help them achieve their objectives in line with the Audit Bureau Law.

The Circular states: “The entities subject to the Bureau’s oversight must fully cooperate with its auditors, facilitate direct communication with the heads of accounts, their directors, and auditors, or whoever acts in their place, respond to their correspondence and inquiries, and submit all documents and records, or any other papers that are necessary to carry out their specific duties according to the law, in the most complete and expeditious manner possible, and facilitating the tasks of the audit team regarding field visits to the entity’s sites.”

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Kuwait: Part-Time Work Permits for Expatriates Launched

Arabian Business, 1 February 2024: Kuwait’s Public Authority for Manpower has announced it has launched a part-time work permit for expatriates.

The permit has been launched to help employers use expatriates already working in the country without having to carry out additional recruitment.

The permits will be issued via the Authority’s Sahel application.

The fees for the new work permit will be five Dinars for one month, 10 Dinars for three months, 20 Dinars for six months and 30 Dinars for a year.

Kuwaiti citizens will not have to pay these fees and can carry out unlimited part-time work. The expatriate applying for a part-time work permit will be able to work for a maximum of four hours a day.

Permission must also be given by the individual’s primary employer. The rules do not apply to employees in the contracting sector.

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Kuwait: Government Submits Action Programme

Kuwait Times, 6 February 2024: The Speaker of Kuwait’s National Assembly has announced the government has submitted its action programme.

The government have warned that economic and financial reforms must not be delayed any longer. If they are the cost of the reforms will be too expensive and relevant procedures will be extremely difficult to complete.

The government has expressed its intention to review charges for various public services that are not controlled by a 30-year-old law banning the government from raising charges on some public services without the prior approval of the Assembly.

In addition, the government has expressed its ambition to enable the private sector to play a bigger economic role. It will do this by offering more investment opportunities to the sector to help it create job opportunities for citizens.

Under the programme, the government has a 100-day action plan.

This plan includes measures being taken to control price rises, reprice various government services that have a limited impact on citizens, prepare a draft corporate income tax law and study the disbursement of public subsidies.

It proposes 22 different pieces of legislation as well that should be approved by the Assembly during the current term that ends in July.

These include a law establishing the northern economic zone and a law amending the wage scheme in the public sector. It also includes a selective tax law, a law amending the Residency Law for expatriates and a law establishing an independent electricity and water authority.

In addition, it includes a law regulating the information sector.

Elsewhere, the National Assembly has voted to approve a government request to delay the debating of two draft laws calling for the citizens’ cost of living allowance to be increased and interest-free loans to be provided to retired Kuwaitis.

The government said it had requested the delay to ensure they could be reviewed more carefully.

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