KUWAIT: Kuwait witnessed many events at the local level throughout 2018. The following are the main events:
– His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah:
Jan. 23: His Highness the Amir received Lebanese President Michel Aoun during his official visit to the country.
Jan. 29: His Highness the Amir patronized and attended the flag-hoisting ceremony over Bayan Palace, on the 12th anniversary of his assumption of office, the 57th anniversary of National Day and the 27th anniversary of Liberation Day.
Feb. 5: His Highness the Amir patronized and attended the ceremony of inaugurating Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Center.
Feb. 14: His Highness the Amir inaugurated Kuwait International Conference for Reconstruction of Iraq.
Feb. 18: His Highness the Amir ordered the payment of debts for citizens and expatriates held in prison that comes in coincidence with the country’s celebrations of national days.
Feb. 19: His Highness the Amir ordered giving financial grants, at his personal expense, to the orphans on occasion of the country’s celebrations of national days.
Feb. 21: Under the patronage and attendance of His Highness the Amir, the ceremony of honoring winners of the 21st Kuwait’s Quran Memorization and Recitation Grand Competition was held.
March 13: His Highness the Amir received Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow during his official visit to Kuwait.
March 18: His Highness the Amir decorated Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko with the Mubarak Al-Kabeer Medal during his official visit to the country. The Ukrainian President also decorated His Highness the Amir with Yaroslav Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, the country’s highest order.
March 20: His Highness the Amir patronized and attended the inauguration of the second Kuwait Investment Forum.
March 28: His Highness the Amir sponsored and attended the opening Kuwait Motor Town.
April 2: His Highness the Amir received President of the Comoros Azali Assoumani and the two exchanges memorials highlighting distinguished bilateral relations.
April 4: His Highness the Amir sponsored and attends national celebration ceremony “Ajeeba Haddeera” at Bayan Theater.
April 15: His Highness the Amir headed to Saudi Arabia, heading the Kuwaiti delegation in Arab League Council 29th session conference, at Dhahran.
April 16: Under the auspices of His Highness the Amir and his attendance the concluding ceremony for military rallies took place, as part of joint training to Gulf Shield 1 training in Sammit field.
April 18: His Highness the Amir sponsors and attends concluding ceremony of Kuwait International Award to Holy Quran Recitation 9th session at Bayan Palace.
April 25: His Highness the Amir sponsors and attends a ceremony honoring teachers in World Teachers Day for the year 2016-17.
May 18: His Highness the Amir arrives in Istanbul city to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) extraordinary summit.
May 27: His Highness the Amir sponsors and attends a ceremony honoring the new expansion made to the ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the opening of the new grand hall.
May 28: His Highness the Amir receives Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.
June 6: His Highness the Amir delivers a speech during the last ten days of the holy month of Ramadan, calling on all to realize changes in the region, and current developments and dangers.
June 11: His Highness the Amir arrives in Holy city of Makkah to partake in a joint meeting to find ways to support Jordan recover from an economic crisis.
June 12: His Highness the Amir receives Jordanian King Abdullah II.
June 30: His Highness the Amir visits First Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad in Germany where he received treatment.
July 2: His Highness the Amir patronized and attended opening of Al-Jahra Medical City.
July 4: His Highness the Amir patronized and attended opening of Kuwait International Airport’s Terminal Four (T4).
July 7: His Highness the Amir arrived in China on an official visit aimed at further cementing relations and cooperation.
July 10: His Highness the Amir addressed Arab-China Cooperation Forum and said cooperation between Arab countries and China would contribute to regional and global security and stability.
Aug. 21: His Highness the Amir arrived in Britain to inquire about health condition of First Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
Sept. 4: His Highness the Amir arrived in Washington on a state visit for summit talks with US President Donald Trump.
Sept. 6: His Highness the Amir met in Washington with chief executives of big American companies.
Sept. 30: His Highness the Amir received at Bayan Palace Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz.
Oct. 25: His Highness the Amir named Kuwait Diplomatic Institute after late Sheikh Saud Nasser Al-Sabah.
Nov. 7: His Highness the Amir patronized and attended a ceremony marking exporting of shipment of light crude oil.
Nov.7: His Highness the Amir held summit talks with visiting Iraqi President Barham Salem.
Nov. 13: His Highness the Amir held talks with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Nov. 26: His Highness the Amir patronized and attended His Highness Sheikh Salem Ali Al-Sabah’s Informatics Award.
Nov. 28: His Highness the Amir attended opening of Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital.
Dec. 3: His Highness Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Sabah represented His Highness the Amir at the funeral of former US President George Bush.
Dec. 9: His Highness the Amir participated in the Gulf Cooperation Council’s Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dec. 10: His Highness the Amir left hospital after undergoing regular medical examinations.
– His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah:
Feb. 9: Representative of His Highness the Amir, His Highness the Crown Prince headed to Saudi Arabia to attend the 32nd session of Al-Janadriyah cultural and folkloric festival.
March 26: Under the patronage and attendance of His Highness the Crown Prince, Kuwait University (KU) held its annual graduation ceremony for the academic year 2016-17.
April 17: His Highness the Crown Prince travelled to the US to carry out medical checkups.
Sept. 30: His Highness the Crown Prince and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Mohammad bin Salman, held bilateral talks during the latter’s visit to Kuwait.
Nov. 13: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas honored His Highness the Crown Prince, during a visit to Kuwait.
Nov. 19: His Highness the Crown Prince patronized the Waqf conference.
– National Assembly:
Jan. 7: National Assembly’s public facilities committee approved amendments on the municipal elections law and referred them to the parliament for voting.
Jan. 7: National Assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee approved a bill allowing the government to raise the borrowing ceiling to KD 25 billion (about $83 billion), within a 30-year period, and to sign public loans as well as carry out financing operations from local and international financial markets.
Feb. 7: National Assembly approved referring a report by the parliamentary budgets and final accounts committee on some expenditures of the Ministry of Interior to the Public Prosecution.
Feb. 11: National Assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee agreed to add 14 new items to civil service law on appointing senior officials.
Feb. 13: National Assembly approved a draft proposal regarding the family court.
Feb. 13: The parliament approved a draft law allowing non-Kuwaitis to join the Kuwait Army.
March 4: The parliament’s defense and interior affairs committee agreed to amend the army’s law and rejected a proposal to equate Gulf and stateless military personnel with their Kuwaiti counterparts.
March 6: National Assembly approved unanimously the conflict of interest law during the first and second sessions.
March 6: National Assembly okayed amendments of the law of the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises.
March 19: Parliament’s legal and legislative affairs committee agreed on the public prosecution’s requests to lift immunity of MPs Waleed Al-Tabtabaie and Safaa Al-Hashem.
March 23: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem took part in 138th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Geneva.
April 3: The parliament agrees, in its first reading, a law amending the Labour Law in regards to privately-employed individuals allowing full benefits for oil sector retirees between 2010 and 2017.
April 4: The parliament adopts a commercial law that incriminates data meddling and allows Ministry of Commerce and Industry employees to assume a judicial policing role.
May 15: The parliament passes a law allowing early retirement for men after 30 years of employment and 25 years for women.
May 17: The parliamentary women’s and family committee passes amendments on the women’s housing law.
June 25: The parliament adopts a law for Kuwait’s contribution in the China-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
June 25: The parliament adopts a law forming a Kuwaiti anti-doping commission.
June 25: The parliament adopts amendments to a law for the establishing of private enterprises in a move aimed at easing the business environment.
July 8: The Court of Cassation amended an appeal ruling in the National Assembly case by handing three-and-a-half year sentences to 13 suspects and two years to another three. It also rejected handing verdicts to 30 and acquits others.
July 17: National Assembly chief Marzouq Al-Ghanem chairs a legislative meeting to discuss recent developments in Iraq.
July 21: At Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union talks, speaker Al-Ghanem states that an overwhelming majority of nations believe in the legitimacy of Arab-Palestinian rights.
Oct. 10: Al-Ghanem conveyed a message from His Highness the Amir to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over resolution of conflicts in the region.
Oct. 17: MP Safa Al-Hashem was elected vice-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s (IPU) Standing Committee on UN Affairs.
Oct. 29: Al-Ghanem received a request to withdraw an interpellation by MPs Shuaib Al-Muwaizri and Mohammad Al-Mutair against His Highness the Prime Minister.
Oct. 30: The National Assembly voted against revoking memberships of Waleed Al-Tabtabae and Jamaan Al-Herbesh, and ended a grilling against Minister of State for parliament Adel Al-Kharafi without filing a no-confidence motion.
Oct. 30: The house approved, in two readings, a bill to change the quorum over general assemblies of sport clubs.
Nov. 11: Speaker Al-Ghanem announced Finance Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf would prepare a mechanism to compensate people affected by heavy rain.
– His Highness the Prime Minister and Government:
Jan. 5: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah represented His Highness the Amir at the conclusion of the 23rd Gulf football Cup, held at Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium.
Jan. 15: The government assigned the Communication and Information Technology Regulatory Authority (CITRA) to implement the regional passage project.
March 12: The council of ministers formed a committee tasked with examining Kuwait’s retreat in the 2017 international corruption list.
March 20: His Highness the Prime Minister attended an event to review state-of-play of Kuwait national development plan.
April 1: The Cabinet approves appointment of Faisal Al-Madlaj as head of the body tasked with the development of the Silk City and Boubyan Island.
July 23: The Cabinet adopted proposals for Offset, an obligation required from foreign entities that sign supply contracts with the government.
Sept. 17: The Cabinet assigned the Municipality with transferring the ownership of the Shuwaikh Free Trade Zone to the Finance Ministry.
Sept. 26: Representing His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Prime Minister delivers Kuwait’s speech at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly.
Oct. 8: The government assigned the Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) to prepare executive plan for construction and operation of Kuwait Airport’s Terminal Two (T2).
Oct. 8: The government, acting upon instructions of His Highness the Amir, provided $2 million for victims of an earthquake in Indonesia.
Oct. 15: The government assigned the foreign ministry to follow up implementation of agreements signed during His highness the Amir’s visit to China.
Oct. 15: The government rejected a campaign against Saudi Arabia following the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Oct. 29: The government assigned state bodies to speed up development of Failaka Island.
Nov. 6: The government announced a day off in all government departments due to severe weather conditions, and His Highness the Prime Minister said the state was ready to address any emergency.
Nov. 6: The government sacked Ahmad Al-Hassan, Director General of the Public Authority for Roads and Transportation.
Dec. 20: His Highness the Prime Minister patronizes and attends inauguration of the new Amiri Hospital expansion project.
Dec. 24: The cabinet accepted the resignations of four ministers, conducting a reshuffle and assigning new ministers. – KUNA
