KUWAIT CITY, Feb 11, (KUNA):  Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thikra Ayed Al-Rashidi on Sunday opened a business incubator aiming to support the successful development of females’ small enterprises. The project is developed by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) and the country office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Addressing the opening ceremony, the minister said: “This is the first such initiative in Kuwait and the Middle East designed to offer logistic and material support to the female entrepreneurs.” “This project will serve as a nucleus for a chain of business incubators for young male and female entrepreneurs. The ultimate goal is to tap into the potentials of the youth and put in play their role in economic development,” she said.

The minister voiced hope that the project will contribute to creating better future for the youth and the country, and boosting the woman economic empowerment. On her part, Director of the SCPD Division of Technical Cooperation and Development Support Lana Abu-Eid voiced hope that the adoption of the law on support to small enterprises will give a quantum leap to the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). “The SMEs account for up to 70 percent of job creating effort and more than 30 percent of GDP of the Arab countries,” she added. Meanwhile, UNDP Resident Representative in Kuwait Mr. Stein R. Hansen said the project will empower women economically through offering solutions to the administrative and bureaucratic problems facing females’ enterprises.

Fifty female entrepreneurs have been selected for training under the business incubator, Hansen added.
Meanwhile, amendments on unemployment insurance and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) bills were approved Sunday by the economic and financial affairs committee and forwarded to parliament to be enlisted on the agenda. “The committee unanimously approved omitting an article from the unemployment insurance bill, which stipulated that employer’s service is not to be terminated in case of resignation,” the committee’s rapporteur MP Safaa Al-Hashem told reporters after the meeting. She explained that such amendment would serve Kuwaitis who are “forced” to resign in the private sector.
As for the national fund to support SMEs, Al-Hashem said amendments on the bill included specifying nature of commercial activities, among others.