The oil sector is the most important sector that attracts Kuwaiti citizens to work in it (Al Jazeera)

Kuwait -

Kuwaiti economic authorities have warned of the impossibility of sustaining the current conditions, given the imbalance in the balance of national employment and the economy’s inability to employ 300,000 young men and women coming to the labor market in 10 years, and in light of the inability of the public sector to provide job opportunities for citizens, it is necessary to Creating a productive private sector that contributes to creating national job opportunities, and preparing it to become the nucleus of a tax base that enhances the country’s democratic values, and involves citizens in construction and financing.

According to observers, Kuwait is in urgent need of an administration that possesses a radical reform vision and has the ability to fight to achieve the goals of its vision. Especially after the words of Prime Minister Sheikh Muhammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah during an extensive meeting with editors-in-chief of local newspapers and representatives of media outlets, that more than 300,000 citizens are expected to enter the labor market during the next ten years, and the public sector will not be able to absorb this number, which requires participation. private sector.

The Kuwaiti banking sector attracts a larger number of citizens to work (Al Jazeera)

Low percentage in the private sector

The total percentage of the population in Kuwait - according to the indicators of the Public Authority for Civil Information - is 32% of citizens compared to 68% of non-citizens (one million and 51 thousand and 491 Kuwaitis compared to two million and 956 thousand and 965 non-Kuwaitis). There are 499,969 citizens in the labor force, compared to 2,504,575 million resident workers.

We find that the percentage of citizens working in the government sector reaches a high rate of 78%, compared to a very weak percentage working in the private sector, 4%, while the percentage of expatriate workers in the government sector reaches 22%, compared to a very large percentage in the private sector, reaching 96%.

Public sector flexibility

Economist Dr. Issam Al-Tawari believes that the public sector is the dominant sector in the field of employment for reasons, the most important of which are the disbursement of salaries, short working hours and other privileges such as financial staff, and the presence of great flexibility in the matter of vacations.

On the other hand, the private sector seeks to obtain the maximum possible effort, work, ideas and innovation from anyone who works for it, and therefore the requirements for work in the private sector are higher than the public sector, in exchange for a lower financial return than in the public sector.

Al-Tawari continues that this prompted the emergence of programs to support national labor for workers in the private sector by the government, by attracting national labor from public to private, but in 2013 and 2014, with the issue of approving financial cadres for some sectors, a number of people from the private sector were displaced. To a year that is unable to create job opportunities and attract all educational outcomes.

Issam Al-Tawari: Citizens prefer to work in the public sector (Al-Jazeera)

Al-Twari points out that Kuwait has 25,000 graduates annually, in addition to the presence of a number of former graduates who are waiting to be appointed in government agencies, and therefore the creation of job opportunities must come from the private sector, and this is one of the goals of establishing the Small and Medium Enterprises Fund to create businesses and companies that provide job opportunities. Mainly for Kuwaitis.

As for the extent of the private sector’s contribution to the Kuwaiti economy, Al-Twari said in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that “the public sector is dominant in Kuwait, as we depend on a single source, which is oil, which constitutes 85% of the national product, and therefore the contribution of the private sector, which depends The projects that come from the public sector, whether in the oil, services or other sectors, are weak and do not constitute more than 13%, and we hope that there will be a greater contribution through the involvement of the private sector in developing upcoming projects such as infrastructure and others, and attracting capital from abroad that works in Strategic sectors such as logistics and technical services that can create new job opportunities for citizens.”

Al-Twari points out that the number of Kuwaiti workers in the private sector may not exceed 70,000, compared to 450,000 Kuwaitis working in the public sector, and this is considered a small percentage. As for expatriate workers, which range between technical and unskilled workers, we have about 650-700 thousand as domestic workers. The rest of the expatriate workers constitute about one and a half million who work mainly in the private sector, compared to a smaller number in the public sector.

It is believed that the largest sector that attracts citizens in the private sector is the banking sector, which is one of the most important work sectors employing Kuwaiti labor, the oil sector, which is considered semi-governmental, and other sectors such as Kuwait Airways.

Expatriate workers in Kuwait are concentrated in large numbers in the private sector. (Al Jazeera)

Weak participation

The writer specializing in economic affairs, Muhammad Al-Baghli, believes that the participation of the Kuwaiti private sector in creating job opportunities for citizens is weak due to the limited private sector and lack of investment opportunities, especially with the low share of small and medium enterprises that could attract a larger number if managed in a stimulating manner. The private sector in Kuwait It employs less than 20% of the Kuwaiti workforce, and Kuwaitis do not constitute more than 6% of the number of workers in the private sector.

Al-Baghli believes that encouraging and motivating citizens to work in the private sector requires a set of steps, such as facilitating access to the necessary financing and lands for entrepreneurs, in addition to facilitating bureaucratic procedures in establishing businesses. It is also important to link the issuance of tenders and awarding them to companies to the extent to which they provide job opportunities for national workers, in addition to that The state continuously provides many investment opportunities for the private sector so that it can continue to provide job opportunities.

Muhammad Al-Baghli sees the need to encourage and motivate citizens to work in the private sector (activists)

As for the steps that private sector companies can take to attract citizens to work for them, Muhammad Al-Baghli believes that it is important for the private sector to take the initiative to work on developing the skills of its employees, in addition to working to raise the level of productivity through training courses and directing foreign expertise to develop national youth. .

Al-Baghli added in his interview with Al-Jazeera Net that one of the basic solutions to reduce workloads in the public sector is to increase the attractiveness of working in the private sector, not only in terms of financial advantages, but also by providing various job benefits, such as the retirement law in the private sector being more... Flexibility in the public sector, in addition to working to localize leadership positions that must be registered during specific periods and rehabilitate young people who graduate from institutes to work in the industrial sector. Especially since national workers work is concentrated in certain sectors in the private sector, such as work in banks, telecommunications companies, and the financial and real estate sectors, as well as freelance businesses, especially in the fields of technology, food, or cafés.

Source: Al Jazeera