KUWAIT CITY, May 15: MP Abdulrahman Al-Anjari, being a keen supporter of the privatization bill, believes that many benefits will emerge from privatization. He describes the law as means of amending the extreme Kuwaiti socialist economy, reports Al-Rai daily.
Al-Anjari is of the opinion that the ideology through which the country’s economy is being managed will lead to disaster. He went on to reveal figures in that regard, citing the overseas Kuwaiti investments.
In a recent interview with Al-Rai TV, Al-Anjari confirmed that privatization law is the only law protecting the national personnel all over the world. He went on to respond to allegations and cleared doubts about the privatization law, and failures witnessed with countries that first implemented the law. He is of the view that those countries failed because they lacked the proper machinery to organize the privatization law.
Meanwhile, he is worried about measures some lawmakers might adopt in future to politicize issues relating to privatization, particularly with the item “golden share”, which has been allotted for the government in companies expected to be privatized.
He urged Kuwaitis to steer clear of pessimism and fear, while rejecting rumor that privatization aims at selling the country to favor some tycoons. He assured such speculations are against the truth, and far from the essence of law.
In the meantime, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Legal and Legislative Affairs MP Hussein Al-Huraiti says he abstained from voting on the privatization bill, because several laws need to be legislated to make the privatization process successful and prevent it from harming Kuwaitis’ interests, reports Al-Rai daily.
In an interview aired on Al-Rai TV channel, Al-Huraiti said there should be laws to eliminate corruption and impose taxes and added that he always expressed his opinions boldly and impartially even when he was a minister and now when he is a parliamentarian. 
Commenting on MP Ali Al-Rashed’s proposal to amend Constitution, Al-Huraiti said he supports the idea of creating a sixth constituency to balance the number of voters in each constituency “but it can be done without modifying the Constitution.” Moreover, he said, there is no need to increase the number of MPs and gave the example of a country which has 70 million citizens but has only 299 MPs to represent them.
Al-Huraiti strongly opposed modifications which are aimed at restricting freedoms in the country and defended Minister of Oil and Information Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al Sabah saying he should not be blamed for not going to the Information Ministry. “I managed the Awqaf Ministry affairs from my office in Justice Ministry. It doesn’t matter how many times you visit a ministry office, what matters is how you manage its affairs,” added Al-Huraiti.
Meantime, minister of Commerce and Industry Ahmad Al-Haroun has assured that the privatization bill will allow the return of some companies established by the private sector, including the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) and Kuwait Oil Tankers Company (KOTC) back to the private sector, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.
The privatization bill approved by the National Assembly states that “the production of oil and natural gas will not be privatized,” but this does not mean that oil sector companies cannot be privatized, noted Al-Haroun.