KUWAIT: During their weekly meeting at Al-Seif Palace and under the chairmanship of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the Cabinet reviewed the recommendations of the ministerial committee on mega development projects and the financial affairs.
The committee, chaired by Sheikh Talal Khaled Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Acting Minister of Interior raised suggestions, to remove the obstacles facing the implementation of mega projects. The Cabinet members also reviewed the recommendations of the committee on economic affairs, chaired by Al-Fares and looked at the proposals put forth by the Minister of Finance and the Minister of State for Economic and Investment Affairs Abdul-Wahab Al-Rushaid, on putting a cap on spending in the upcoming three fiscal years.
In the meeting, Al-Rushaid was asked to adopt adequate measures to limit spending and set the necessary guidelines and regulations for the government agencies to be in alignment with the state budget. The Minister was also tasked with the issuance of circulations regulating the budget appropriations in accordance to the provisions of Act 31 (1978) and the budgetary and auditing rules.
The Cabinet also discussed some suggestions pitched by a public services committee, comprising of various state bodies, planned initiatives aimed at enhancing Kuwait's food security and also referred the matter to the country's Government Performance Follow-Up Agency. The agency will also be tasked with compiling a special report on these initiatives, which includes forming designated storage facilities to boost food security - a comprehensive plan that requires further coordination among state organizations.
Finance Minister Abdul-Wahab Al-Rushaid then briefed the Cabinet on the existential financial challenges facing Kuwait, all of which require reforms to usher in financial stability, he underlined, even as his ministry's efforts to address the matter were praised by the Cabinet.
The talks then turned to current happenings around the world, mainly a recent spate of terrorist attacks in a number of countries, including a deadly attack targeting a food convoy in Somalia and a bomb blast that ripped through a mosque in western Afghanistan, both of which left scores of people dead or injured. The Cabinet strongly condemned these incidents, in addition to the recent assassination attempt on Argentina's Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, adding that Kuwait backed global efforts to root out terrorism. -KUNA