Project creates over 1,000 jobs for citizens

KUWAIT: Under the auspices and with the attendance of the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development Dr Khaled Mahdi, the plans and programs follow-up department yesterday visited the site of the clean fuel project, which is carried out by Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC). Speaking during the occasion, Mahdi said around 97.12 percent of the project has been completed and that according to the plan, the KD 4,680,000,000 project is expected to be completed in November 2019. He added that the new project provided 537 job opportunities for citizens during construction and will provide 592 more on operation by December.

Mahdi added that the clean fuel project aims at enhancing the capacities of Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries to 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) and help produce high quality petrochemical derivatives needed in Kuwait as well as European and American markets, which will revive the national economy.

The council's assistant secretary general for planning and follow-up affairs Bader Al-Refae said the aim of the visit was to check the progress of work at this strategic project compared to its schedule. He also stressed that no delay was detected. Also speaking during the visit, the council's plans and programs follow-up department manager Suad Al-Awadhi stressed that visiting KNPC's clean fuel project was of great strategic significance to the state's development plan.

E-visas to visit Uzbekistan
Starting from Feb 1, 2019, Kuwaitis will be able to obtain e-visas to visit Uzbekistan, said a statement by the Uzbek Embassy in Kuwait, adding that president Shavkat Mirziyoyev had signed a presidential decree allowing nationals of 76 countries, including Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia, to get e-visas to enter Uzbekistan.
The statement explained that the decision was made to enhance and boost tourism to Uzbekistan - the most densely populated country in Central Asia, which is a federal Muslim republic of the former Soviet Union with Tashkent as its capital and Samarkand as one of its most important cities. The statement also explained that Uzbekistan had recently launched new types of visas including three-month ones for treatment, a one-year visa for students registered with and accepted by the ministry of higher education and three-month to two-year visas for academics desiring to conduct research requested by the Uzbek Academy of Sciences.