KUWAIT: Kuwaitwitnessed many events at the local level throughout 2018. The following are themain events:
- His Highnessthe Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah:
Jan. 23: HisHighness the Amir received Lebanese President Michel Aoun during his officialvisit to the country.
Jan. 29: HisHighness the Amir patronized and attended the flag-hoisting ceremony over BayanPalace, on the 12th anniversary of his assumption of office, the 57thanniversary of National Day and the 27th anniversary of Liberation Day.
Feb. 5: HisHighness the Amir patronized and attended the ceremony of inaugurating SheikhAbdullah Al-Salem Cultural Center.
Feb. 14: HisHighness the Amir inaugurated Kuwait International Conference forReconstruction of Iraq.
Feb. 18: HisHighness the Amir ordered the payment of debts for citizens and expatriatesheld in prison that comes in coincidence with the country's celebrations ofnational days.
Feb. 19: HisHighness the Amir ordered giving financial grants, at his personal expense, tothe orphans on occasion of the country's celebrations of national days.
Feb. 21: Underthe patronage and attendance of His Highness the Amir, the ceremony of honoringwinners of the 21st Kuwait's Quran Memorization and Recitation GrandCompetition was held.
March 13: HisHighness the Amir received Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedowduring his official visit to Kuwait.
March 18: HisHighness the Amir decorated Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko with theMubarak Al-Kabeer Medal during his official visit to the country. The UkrainianPresident also decorated His Highness the Amir with Yaroslav Order of PrinceYaroslav the Wise, the country's highest order.
March 20: HisHighness the Amir patronized and attended the inauguration of the second KuwaitInvestment Forum.
March 28: HisHighness the Amir sponsored and attended the opening Kuwait Motor Town.
April 2: HisHighness the Amir received President of the Comoros Azali Assoumani and the twoexchanges memorials highlighting distinguished bilateral relations.
April 4: HisHighness the Amir sponsored and attends national celebration ceremony"Ajeeba Haddeera" at Bayan Theater.
April 15: HisHighness the Amir headed to Saudi Arabia, heading the Kuwaiti delegation inArab League Council 29th session conference, at Dhahran.
April 16: Underthe auspices of His Highness the Amir and his attendance the concludingceremony for military rallies took place, as part of joint training to GulfShield 1 training in Sammit field.
April 18: HisHighness the Amir sponsors and attends concluding ceremony of KuwaitInternational Award to Holy Quran Recitation 9th session at Bayan Palace.
April 25: HisHighness the Amir sponsors and attends a ceremony honoring teachers in WorldTeachers Day for the year 2016-17.
May 18: HisHighness the Amir arrives in Istanbul city to attend the Organization ofIslamic Cooperation (OIC) extraordinary summit.
May 27: HisHighness the Amir sponsors and attends a ceremony honoring the new expansionmade to the ministry of Foreign Affairs, including the opening of the new grandhall.
May 28: HisHighness the Amir receives Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin KhalifaAl-Thani.
June 6: HisHighness the Amir delivers a speech during the last ten days of the holy monthof Ramadan, calling on all to realize changes in the region, and currentdevelopments and dangers.
June 11: HisHighness the Amir arrives in Holy city of Makkah to partake in a joint meetingto find ways to support Jordan recover from an economic crisis.
June 12: HisHighness the Amir receives Jordanian King Abdullah II.
June 30: HisHighness the Amir visits First Deputy Prime Minister and Defence MinisterSheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad in Germany where he received treatment.
July 2: HisHighness the Amir patronized and attended opening of Al-Jahra Medical City.
July 4: HisHighness the Amir patronized and attended opening of Kuwait InternationalAirport's Terminal Four (T4).
July 7: HisHighness the Amir arrived in China on an official visit aimed at furthercementing relations and cooperation.
July 10: HisHighness the Amir addressed Arab-China Cooperation Forum and said cooperationbetween Arab countries and China would contribute to regional and global securityand stability.
Aug. 21: HisHighness the Amir arrived in Britain to inquire about health condition of FirstDeputy Premier and Defense Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
Sept. 4: HisHighness the Amir arrived in Washington on a state visit for summit talks withUS President Donald Trump.
Sept. 6: HisHighness the Amir met in Washington with chief executives of big Americancompanies.
Sept. 30: HisHighness the Amir received at Bayan Palace Saudi Crown Prince Salman binAbdulaziz.
Oct. 25: HisHighness the Amir named Kuwait Diplomatic Institute after late Sheikh SaudNasser Al-Sabah.
Nov. 7: HisHighness the Amir patronized and attended a ceremony marking exporting ofshipment of light crude oil.
Nov.7: HisHighness the Amir held summit talks with visiting Iraqi President Barham Salem.
Nov. 13: HisHighness the Amir held talks with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Nov. 26: HisHighness the Amir patronized and attended His Highness Sheikh Salem AliAl-Sabah's Informatics Award.
Nov. 28: HisHighness the Amir attended opening of Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital.
Dec. 3: HisHighness Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Sabah represented His Highness the Amir atthe funeral of former US President George Bush.
Dec. 9: His Highnessthe Amir participated in the Gulf Cooperation Council's Summit in Riyadh, SaudiArabia.
Dec. 10: HisHighness the Amir left hospital after undergoing regular medical examinations.
- His Highnessthe Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah:
Feb. 9:Representative of His Highness the Amir, His Highness the Crown Prince headedto Saudi Arabia to attend the 32nd session of Al-Janadriyah cultural andfolkloric festival.
March 26: Underthe patronage and attendance of His Highness the Crown Prince, KuwaitUniversity (KU) held its annual graduation ceremony for the academic year2016-17.
April 17: HisHighness the Crown Prince travelled to the US to carry out medical checkups.
Sept. 30: HisHighness the Crown Prince and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Mohammad binSalman, 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: HisHighness the Crown Prince patronized the Waqf conference.
- NationalAssembly:
Jan. 7: NationalAssembly's public facilities committee approved amendments on the municipalelections law and referred them to the parliament for voting.
Jan. 7: NationalAssembly's financial and economic affairs committee approved a bill allowingthe government to raise the borrowing ceiling to KD 25 billion (about $83billion), within a 30-year period, and to sign public loans as well as carryout financing operations from local and international financial markets.
Feb. 7: NationalAssembly approved referring a report by the parliamentary budgets and finalaccounts committee on some expenditures of the Ministry of Interior to thePublic Prosecution.
Feb. 11: NationalAssembly's financial and economic affairs committee agreed to add 14 new itemsto civil service law on appointing senior officials.
Feb. 13: NationalAssembly approved a draft proposal regarding the family court.
Feb. 13: Theparliament approved a draft law allowing non-Kuwaitis to join the Kuwait Army.
March 4: Theparliament's defense and interior affairs committee agreed to amend the army'slaw and rejected a proposal to equate Gulf and stateless military personnelwith their Kuwaiti counterparts.
March 6: NationalAssembly approved unanimously the conflict of interest law during the first andsecond sessions.
March 6: NationalAssembly okayed amendments of the law of the National Fund for Small and MediumEnterprises.
March 19:Parliament's legal and legislative affairs committee agreed on the publicprosecution's requests to lift immunity of MPs Waleed Al-Tabtabaie and SafaaAl-Hashem.
March 23:National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem took part in 138thInter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly in Geneva.
April 3: Theparliament agrees, in its first reading, a law amending the Labour Law inregards to privately-employed individuals allowing full benefits for oil sectorretirees between 2010 and 2017.
April 4: Theparliament adopts a commercial law that incriminates data meddling and allowsMinistry of Commerce and Industry employees to assume a judicial policing role.
May 15: Theparliament passes a law allowing early retirement for men after 30 years ofemployment and 25 years for women.
May 17: Theparliamentary women's and family committee passes amendments on the women'shousing law.
June 25: Theparliament adopts a law for Kuwait's contribution in the China-based AsianInfrastructure Investment Bank.
June 25: Theparliament adopts a law forming a Kuwaiti anti-doping commission.
June 25: Theparliament adopts amendments to a law for the establishing of privateenterprises in a move aimed at easing the business environment.
July 8: The Courtof Cassation amended an appeal ruling in the National Assembly case by handingthree-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: NationalAssembly chief Marzouq Al-Ghanem chairs a legislative meeting to discuss recentdevelopments in Iraq.
July 21: At ArabInter-Parliamentary Union talks, speaker Al-Ghanem states that an overwhelmingmajority of nations believe in the legitimacy of Arab-Palestinian rights.
Oct. 10:Al-Ghanem conveyed a message from His Highness the Amir to Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan over resolution of conflicts in the region.
Oct. 17: MP SafaAl-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 ShuaibAl-Muwaizri and Mohammad Al-Mutair against His Highness the Prime Minister.
Oct. 30: TheNational Assembly voted against revoking memberships of Waleed Al-Tabtabae andJamaan Al-Herbesh, and ended a grilling against Minister of State forparliament Adel Al-Kharafi without filing a no-confidence motion.
Oct. 30: Thehouse approved, in two readings, a bill to change the quorum over generalassemblies of sport clubs.
Nov. 11: SpeakerAl-Ghanem announced Finance Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf would prepare a mechanismto compensate people affected by heavy rain.
- His Highnessthe Prime Minister and Government:
Jan. 5: HisHighness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah representedHis Highness the Amir at the conclusion of the 23rd Gulf football Cup, held atJaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium.
Jan. 15: Thegovernment assigned the Communication and Information Technology RegulatoryAuthority (CITRA) to implement the regional passage project.
March 12: The councilof ministers formed a committee tasked with examining Kuwait's retreat in the2017 international corruption list.
March 20: HisHighness the Prime Minister attended an event to review state-of-play of Kuwaitnational development plan.
April 1: TheCabinet approves appointment of Faisal Al-Madlaj as head of the body taskedwith the development of the Silk City and Boubyan Island.
July 23: TheCabinet adopted proposals for Offset, an obligation required from foreignentities that sign supply contracts with the government.
Sept. 17: TheCabinet assigned the Municipality with transferring the ownership of theShuwaikh Free Trade Zone to the Finance Ministry.
Sept. 26:Representing His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HisHighness the Prime Minister delivers Kuwait's speech at the 73rd United NationsGeneral Assembly.
Oct. 8: Thegovernment assigned the Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) toprepare executive plan for construction and operation of Kuwait Airport'sTerminal Two (T2).
Oct. 8: Thegovernment, acting upon instructions of His Highness the Amir, provided $2million for victims of an earthquake in Indonesia.
Oct. 15: Thegovernment assigned the foreign ministry to follow up implementation ofagreements signed during His highness the Amir's visit to China.
Oct. 15: Thegovernment rejected a campaign against Saudi Arabia following the murder ofJamal Khashoggi.
Oct. 29: Thegovernment assigned state bodies to speed up development of Failaka Island.
Nov. 6: Thegovernment announced a day off in all government departments due to severeweather conditions, and His Highness the Prime Minister said the state wasready to address any emergency.
Nov. 6: Thegovernment sacked Ahmad Al-Hassan, Director General of the Public Authority forRoads and Transportation.
Dec. 20: HisHighness the Prime Minister patronizes and attends inauguration of the newAmiri Hospital expansion project.
Dec. 24: Thecabinet accepted the resignations of four ministers, conducting a reshuffle andassigning new ministers. - KUNA