THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAITEstablished in 1977 / www.arabtimesonline.com

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2018 / JUMADA AL AWWAL 18, 1439 AH emergency number 112 36 PAGES 150 FILSNO. 16689

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Kuwait rating affirmed ... Outlook stableKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3, (KUNA): Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has af-firmed its credit rating AA/A-1+ for the State of Kuwait with stable outlook.

The world ratings agency said in a press release that the stable outlook reflects its ex-pectation that Kuwait’s public and external balance sheets will remain strong over the forecast horizon, backed by a significant stock of financial assets.

The agency expected these strengths to offset risks related to lower oil prices, Kuwait’s undiversified economy, and ris-ing geopolitical tensions in the region.

Kuwait’s economic flexibility will be backed by governmental investment spending and gradu-ally controlled public budget, it said, pointing to a reasonable rise in oil prices this year.

Falling oil prices have se-verely impacted the Gulf coun-try’s economy since oil prices began their downward slide in 2014, according to the press release.

The ratings agency forecast Kuwait’s growth will average around 3 percent over 2019-2021 on the back of rising oil production and investment projects, affirming the coun-try’s outlook as “stable”.

Moderately high oil prices expected this year, along with a broad public investment pro-gram, are expected to support growth momentum over the forecast period, the agency added.

The S&P anticipated Ku-wait’s oil output to rise to over three million barrels per day (bpd) by 2021 from its current level of 2.7 million bpd.

Gradual fiscal consolidation meanwhile is expected through to 2020 with likely introduc-tion of spending caps and value added tax in 2019, it indicated.

The Kuwaiti government is expected to post a deficit of 16 percent for the current fiscal year after the deduction of gov-ernment revenues to the Future Generations Fund, it said.

The financial system in Ku-wait is stable and Kuwaiti banks enjoy a strong capital base with cash adequacy ac-cording to Basel III, the rating agency pointed out.

Law applies to everyone in Saudi Arabia … no place for corruptionOpinion

By Ahmed Al-JarallahEditor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

THE Saudi government has re-covered 400 billion Saudi riyals from the funds that some people usurped through corruption prac-tices in the implementation of projects for years. This amount makes up for the deficit of the State — about 200 billion Saudi riyals each year. This will also reduce cost of projects in the fu-ture, because they will be carried out without commissions and in-termediaries as practiced before the purge.

According to Saudi’s higher circles, a project that costs 300 million Saudi riyals gets an al-location of a billion Saudi riyals; so the extra 700 million Saudi riyals are divided between those who made it possible for the con-tractor to obtain the project.

In other words, the rate of squandering State wealth was more than two-fold. Such prac-tices hamper the development of infrastructure in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; but with new mea-sures in place to combat corrup-tion, the situation has completely changed.

Another good thing is the fact that not all the recovered money were in cash. Some were in the form of shares and assets with annual investment returns. Even if we assume that the shares and assets constitute seven percent of what the purge has yielded, the income generated will be 28 bil-lion Saudi riyals per annum. This new financial contributor will be added to other contributors which comprise 50 percent of the current budget from non-oil resources.

Everyone knows this is not the end of strides towards fight-ing corruption by Head of the Anti-Corruption Committee and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman.

Several business figures were referred to the prosecution for questioning. This means the re-covered amount will increase, considering what the Kingdom’s higher circles have mentioned. They said money, which has been wasted since 1980 (38 years ago), is estimated at four trillion Saudi riyals.

Naturally, not all squandered funds will be recovered through the kingdom’s corruption purge; but at least, the conditions are conducive for eradicating cor-ruption. Undoubtedly, the new measures will turn off the cor-ruption tap and enhance transpar-ency in businesses.

Email: ahmed@aljarallah.com

Follow me on:

ahmedaljarallah@gmail.com

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KUNA photoAmbassador Mansour Al-Otaibi, addressing a press conference held at the United Nations on the occasion of Kuwait assuming the presidency of the Security Council for the month of February.

Kuwait chairs Security Council

‘Same priorities after 39 years’NEW YORK, Feb 3, (KUNA): Kuwait has returned to the Security Council after 40 years and returned Friday to head the coun-cil in February after 39 years, its last presi-dency of the Security Council in Feb 1979, Kuwait’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi said.

This came at a press conference held at the United Nations on Thursday on the oc-casion of Kuwait’s presidency of the Secu-

rity Council in February, where Ambassa-dor Al-Otaibi reviewed the agenda of the Council and the top priorities of the foreign policy of Kuwait.

He pointed out that the Kuwaiti foreign policy continued during the past four de-cades with the same priorities, namely the Arab issues on top of which is the Palestin-ian issue, as well as its policies of preven-tive diplomacy and mediation.

‘ME turmoil a riskto global security’CAIRO, Feb 3, (KUNA): Ku-wait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah warned that the current status quo in the occupied Pal-estinian territories will reflect negatively on regional and global peace and security.

Speaking at an Arab League extraordinary session discuss-ing the US recognition of Je-rusalem as Israel’s capital, he also warned that the recent move to decrease funding to the United Nations Palestinian ref-ugee agency, UNRWA, would push the situation in the area towards an “explosion” if the international community fails to recognize its repercussions.

He reiterated Kuwait’s firm stance in support of Palestinian rights, including maintaining the current status of Jerusalem in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions, and declared the recent unilat-eral moves as “void and base-less.” Kuwait will affirm these stances amid its non-permanent membership of the UNSC, and will call for talks to exchange views aimed at discussing 50

years since Israel occupied Pal-estine during its UNSC presi-dency.

He underlined the important role of the Arab League min-isterial committee, amid its contacts with global parties, to pressure Israel to commit to international laws and halt ille-gal settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land and highlight the dangers of the US move.

The minister also urged Arab nations to unite in expressing a joint reaction to the move, and praised Egypt’s role in hosting Palestinian reconciliation talks.

The Arab League Council decided, during the meeting to reach out to the world’s main players to set up an interna-tional multilateral mechanism for sponsoring the Middle East peace process under auspices of the United Nations.

The meeting, held on Thurs-day under the theme of “Arab move against the US decision on Jerusalem”, called for an international conference on relaunching the peace process within a specific timeframe on

KUNA photoDeputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah during the Arab Foreign Ministers meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo,

Egypt.

Rethink on under-30 expat hiresKUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Indi-cations are rife that the gov-ernment may reconsider its decision to limit the recruit-ment of expatriate employees to those who are 30 years old and above, and the decision is likely to have consequences on the execution of several ongo-ing development projects, re-ports Al-Qabas daily.

The daily quoting a source noted the idea is being pon-dered at a time when several government departments and agencies, such as Public Au-thority for Manpower, the Secretariat General for Plan-ning and many others are determined to employ in Jan-uary expatriates holding di-ploma and higher certificates who are up to thirty years and above.

However, the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Al-Sabeeh has postponed it for further studies.

The source stressed the im-plementation of the decision in the second half of the next fiscal year without exhaustive study will have negative impli-cation on the ongoing projects, especially if the officials fail to consider almost 32 major proj-ects at hand and many other projects that could be incorpo-rated with time.

He explained the Public Authority for Housing Wel-fare has been considering the need to collaborate with the Public Authority for Man-power to resolve issues re-lated to housing, because it is the most important national concern.

The same source pointed out that the authority will soon sign contracts with some companies to execute four projects at Mutlaa Residential City, in addition to other con-tracts wherein over 15,000 workers are needed, in addi-tion to 3,500 workers for the execution of South Abdullah Al-Mubarak Residential City project.

Photo by Mohammad MorsiInformation Minister opens Youth Initiative Fair at Mubarakiya Market. – See Page 2

Embassy denies maids rumorBy Michelle Fe Santiago

Arab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: The Philippine Embassy issued an advisory on Friday ve-hemently dispelling the rumor that has been circulating on the social media and even on text messages that those who want to get a Filipina domestic worker may go to the Philippine Embassy and the Embassy will give them a domestic worker in exchange of a KD 600 payment. Moreover, the rumor alleged that the embassy will fix the visa or work permit of the domestic worker.

“This is totally not true. These are all lies. The Embassy has never engaged in this kind of activity or arrangement. Those who are queuing outside the embassy are applying for amnesty and they all want to go home to the Philippines. The Philippine Embassy is helping them in the processing of their travel document, fingerprint and their exit clearance,” disclosed Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait Renato Pedro Villa during a meeting with the Filipino commu-nity leaders on Friday at the embassy.

The rumor has been circulating at the onset of the amnesty on Jan 29 where thou-sands of undocumented Overseas Filipino

Workers trooped to the embassy.The Ministry of Interior issued on Jan 23,

2018 a ministerial Decision No. 64/2018 stipulating regulations for expatriates, whose residency applications were rejected or those with expired residency permits, to rectify their status or leave the country. The amnesty period is from Jan 29, 2018 to Feb 22, 2018.

“We have already informed the Minis-try of Interior and Office of the Domestic Workers Affairs (ODWA) about this rumor and whoever is behind it should stop it,” stressed Villa.

He also informed the Filipino commu-nity that the deployment suspension of all newly hired workers to Kuwait issued by the Department of Labour and Employment on Jan 19, 2018 is still in place pending re-sults of the investigation on the death of seven OFWs.

“There’s still no news of the lifting of the deployment suspension. A top level delega-tion from the Philippines will be meeting with Kuwaiti officials this mid February for the joint bilateral talks to discuss issues of mutual concern and included in the agenda is the memorandum of understanding on

Kurd outrageat mutilationAFRIN, Syria, Feb 3, (Agen-cies): Syria’s Kurds on Friday accused Turkey-backed rebels fighting them of mutilating then filming the body of one of their female fighters, after a video emerged of her corpse.

Turkey and allied Syrian reb-els have since Jan 20 pressed an offensive against the Kurd-ish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, whose Kurdish fighters Ankara views as “terrorists”.

A Kurdish official identi-fied the young woman as Ba-rin Kobane, who took part in a US-backed campaign to drive the Islamic State jihadist group from the northern town of Ko-bane.

The Kurds in a statement blamed the “terrorist allies of the enemy Turkish state” for mutilating the body of Kobane, who was a member of the all-female Kurdish Women’s Pro-tection Units.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said it received the video from a Syrian rebel fight-ing with Turkish forces in the Afrin offensive.

The rebel told the Observa-tory the footage was filmed on Tuesday after rebels found the young woman’s corpse in the village of Qurna near the Turk-ish border in the north of the enclave.

In the footage, a dozen men, some armed, gather around the badly mutilated body of a woman lying on the ground.

The Kurdish community re-acted with outrage and social media users shared online a portrait of Kobane smiling next to another shot of her brutalised body.

“Barin did not surrender, she fought to the death,” said Amad

Coalition suffersYemen setbacks

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NEHM, Yemen/DUBAI, Feb 3, (RTRS): Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have pumped billions of dollars into fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen, but the Gulf states’ three-year campaign risks being derailed after their local allies turned on each other this week.

It was a serious setback for the Sau-di-led coalition whose thousands of air strikes have so far failed to deliver vic-tory over the Houthis, who are aligned with Iran.

Riyadh and its allies see victory in Yemen, where they are backed by US weapons and intelligence, as vital if they are to counter Iran’s growing in-fluence in the Middle East, a priority for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

But coalition prospects have been dimmed by an armed uprising this week by fighters in southern Yemen, who have been backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), against govern-ment forces until now on the same side.

This comes at a time when the coali-tion war effort has already been run-ning into trouble. Late last year, the coalition moved quickly to support for-mer president Ali Abdullah Saleh when he seemed to be about to end his back-ing for the Houthis, but he was killed by the Houthis.

Since then, there has been no sign of a new strategy to end the war in Yemen and Saudi efforts to confront Iran in

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Newswatch

GENEVA: Four UN rights experts urged Iran Friday to ensure three Christians due to go on trial this weekend get a fair hearing, warning that the religious minority faces “severe discrimination” in the country.

Pastor Victor Bet Tamraz, Amin Afshar Naderi and Hadi Asgari were sentenced to between 10 and 15 years in prison last July for among other things “conducting evangelism”, the independent experts said in a statement.

The men are due to appear Sunday before Iran’s Revolutionary Court, which has the power to end the case, confirm the sentences or refer the case to the Supreme Court.

The UN experts on the human rights situation in Iran, alongside the experts on free-dom of religion, on minority issues and on the right to health demanded that the men receive “a fair and transparent final hearing”. (AFP)

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TEHRAN: An Iranian law-maker says authorities detained nearly 5,000 people during the widespread pro-tests and unrest that took place in January.

Parliament member Alireza Rahimi posted on messaging service Telegram Friday that only 492 of those arrested are still in jail and the rest have been released.

Rahimi said only six pro-testers are detained in the capital Tehran, including two women. He added that some 95 percent of all those arrest-ed were men.

Earlier in January, law-maker Mahmoud Sadeghi had said some 3,700 protest-ers were detained, adding that it was the most accurate fig-ure he could offer at the time.

Dozens were killed during the demonstrations that began over economic grievances and quickly spread across the country and turned into anti-government protests. (AP)

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