KUWAIT: Finance Minister and Acting State Minister for Economic Affairs Mariam Al-Aqeel said the number of citizens targeted for appointment in the private sector during the next two years in 10,000, adding that a decision in this regard will be issued at the start of the new year.

Aqeel, answering a parliamentary question by MP Mohammad Al-Dallal, said the manpower authority's vision towards increasing the percentage of citizens employed in the private sector is according to law 19/2000, whose article 9 authorized the Council of Ministers to decide such percentages and commit non-government entities to comply with them.

She added that the Council of Ministers does not decide the percentage until after the authority has studied the needs of the marketplace and education graduates, then proposes the percentage that must be implemented. The matter will then be sent to the fatwa and legislation department to review it and frame it in a legal text. Meanwhile, Aqeel denied rumors alleging that a government study aims at reducing expat numbers to 150,000 in the private sector was prepared. - Al-Jarida