By B Izzak

KUWAIT: Five lawmakers yesterday submitted a draft law calling on the government to liquidate the troubled state-owned Touristic Enterprises Co (TEC) and replace it with various entertainment projects. MPs Hasan Jowhar, Muhalhal Al-Mudhaf, Abdullah Al-Mudhaf, Hamad Rouh El-Din and Muhannad Al-Sayer said in the bill that TEC has reached a stage where it cannot perform the tasks it had been established for several decades ago.

They said TEC has been unable to cope with the changes in the entertainment industry. They added Kuwait currently has a dearth of essential entertainment projects although almost half of its native population is under 20 years of age, who need entertainment the most.

The bill calls on the Kuwait Investment Authority, which owns TEC on behalf of the state, to dissolve the company within six months because it can no longer achieve its purposes. It also calls for offering existing touristic facilities for investment under the private-public partnership (PPP) system, where private investors can manage the entertainment facilities and develop them.

Meanwhile, the civil aviation authority yesterday called on all arriving passengers to install the Shlonik application, which is used to monitor those who are under quarantine. The authority reminded arrivals to carry a vaccination certificate of vaccines approved in Kuwait - Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

The certificate should have a QR code that can be read electronically. In case there is no QR Code, the certificate must be uploaded to the ministry of health website for verification. Kuwaiti authorities have also allowed expats who have been vaccinated with Chinese and Russian vaccines to enter the country, provided they get a third dose of one of the four approved vaccines.