KUWAIT: The Cabinet held its weekly session virtually on Monday under the chairmanship of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, who assured the ministers that His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s health was stable. Following the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh said His Highness the Prime Minister, at the start of the meeting, assured the ministers about the stability of His Highness the Amir’s health. His Highness the Prime Minister prayed to Allah Almighty to grace His Highness the Amir, who has been undergoing medical treatment in the United States of America, with full recovery and bestow upon him everlasting health and welfare so he may return home soon.

COVID-19 update

Meanwhile, Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Humoud Al-Sabah briefed the ministers about the health status in the country, based on statistical figures of the casualties, recoveries and patients receiving treatment. The ministers expressed deep admiration for the great efforts exerted by the ministry in coordination with the other competent authorities for facing the pandemic (COVID-19) and stem its spread. They also urged citizens and residents of the country to continue cooperating to pave way for applying the third phase of restoring regular life, which started yesterday. They reminded them of the necessity to adhere to health precautions to control the virus according to globally agreed-upon methods, and for the sake of ending this crisis with the best possible results. They turned to the issue of the Eid ritual of livestock slaughtering, examining several measures including usage of the digital platform (meta.e.gov.kw) to regulate dates for slaughtering the livestock and organize the physical presence of people at the slaughterhouses with least possible close mingling.

Sovereign ranking

Moreover, the ministers were briefed about a recommendation by the committee of economic affairs regarding Kuwait’s sovereign ranking by international rating agencies. The Cabinet decided to task the supreme secretariat general for planning and development to draft a roadmap and timetable for improving the sovereign rating of the State of Kuwait in the reports of these agencies. 

Furthermore, the council of ministers approved bills regarding the adoption of final accounts of the Capital Market Authority (2019-2020), Kuwait Ports Authority (2019-2020) and the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and its subsidiaries (2019-2020). The bills were submitted to His Highness the Deputy Amir, pending referral to the National Assembly. As to the unified government application, “Sahel,” the cabinet tasked the Central Agency for Information Technology to oversee the execution of the project, advising various departments to consider securing staff for the task and the Central Agency for Information Technology to take all necessary measures with respect of computing. — KUNA