KUWAIT CITY, March 7: The National Assembly, during Thursday’s special session, has approved a number of recommendations concerning the housing issue following the presentations and visions by the government and lawmakers on how to solve this issue.

 During discussions the lawmakers have asserted that the problem of housing is not about money or land, but rather mismanagement, lack of clear strategy on the part of the government, bureaucracy and delay in implementing the housing projects.

They have urged the government to set a clear and short- and long-term strategy to resolve the housing problem and speed up the construction of the housing projects in the new and existing cities to reduce the number of applicants which has now crossed the 100,000 mark.

The first recommendation said the data presented by the government and proposals of the MPs should be referred to the Public Utilities Committee.

The recommendation also proposes taking the opinion of experts from the private sector, institutions and companies.

The second recommendation stipulates that the Ministry of Finance should hand over Blocks 3 and 4 in South Khaitan consisting of 1,200 housing units to the Ministry of Housing to help reduce the number of housing applications.

The recommendation calls for integration of health services, ministries complexes, markets and the University in addition to essential services for citizens.

It also recommends beautification of landscape in housing cities and calls on the government to accept the involvement of the private sector companies through the BOT system.

The third recommendation calls on the government to evaluate corrugated houses in areas such as Khaitan, Omariya, Sulaibikhat, Doha and Rumaithiya within a period not exceeding six months.

The Minister of Communications and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Salem Al-Utheina was quoted as saying HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and higher political leadership and the government is serious about resolving the housing issue.

This disclosed this in a speech to the National Assembly. He said this issue is of paramount importance for a Kuwaiti family which is regarded the first nucleus when it comes to building of the Kuwaiti society.
He admitted the Housing Ministry is facing an uphill task to solve the problem of housing and prove “our humanity to the Kuwaiti people and the higher political leadership.”

He noted the importance of this file comes from the concern shown by HH the Amir who has highlighted the housing issue in his speeches on more than one occasion.

He noted the government and the Parliament are sailing in the same boat “and the responsibility is put on my shoulders.” He stressed on his promise to accomplish what the ministry promises and implements on the ground in cooperation with the Parliament.

He thanked the presenters of the proposal to hold this session as well as the Chairman and members of the National Assembly Public Utilities Committee for its cooperation during the discussion of the Decree Law on the housing issue as well as to members of the National Assembly for approving of this decree.

He went on to say for several decades Kuwait has been working hard to provide adequate housing and security for the citizens. He indicated the Public Authority for Housing Care (PAHC) had taken positive steps in this direction since its inception through numerous housing projects that have already either been accomplished or are still being developed.

During his presentation in the Parliament the Minister touched on the current situation and the expected housing applications until 2020. He noted the total number of applications expected until the end of the year was about 174,619.

He said that there are projects which are being implemented and distributed in 2013. These include the Al-Khairan project with 327 housing units, Al-Wafra 370 housing units ready for distribution, Al-Sabahiya 133, expansion of Al-Wafra 2,686 units, Sabah Al-Ahmed City 2,201 and Abu Halifa 171 units. This brings the total to 5,888 residential units.

He explained the projects which fall under implementation and distribution in 2014 are the Jaber Al-Ahmad City with 1,545 housing units, Northwest Sulaibikhat 706 and West Abdullah Al-Mubarak with 5,940 units. The total is 8,191 residential units.

He explained the timetable for the implementation of PAHC is divided into projects which are ready for distribution (housing plots in Al-Khairan and Al-Wafra) and projects being implementation (and this varies between houses and apartments in the Sabah Al-Ahmed City and the Jaber Al-Ahmad City and Northwest Sulaibikhat) and projects in the stages of planning, design and processing of tender documents (this varies between housing plots and apartments in expansion of Al-Wafra, West of Abdullah Al Mubarak, Abu Halifa and Al-Sabah).

He said the implementation of projects in the new housing cities will be between 2016 and 2020 with a total number of 108,755 housing units. Of these 35,130 units will be distributed to Al-Khairan Housing City, 21,000 units to Al-Mitla and 52, 625 units to Al-Subbiya City.

He noted the PAHC is also in the process to establishing a low-cost housing project to be a substitute for the existing houses in Al-Taima and Al-Sulaibiya with a total number of 9,696 housing units.

He said there are sites that will be allocated and that coordination is this regard is underway between the PAHC and other government agencies to allocate them in light of the ‘executive programs for projects’ which will be put in place to include project of north of Al-Mitla with 52,000 housing units and the Number (11) area of South City of Saad Al-Abdullah with 12,000 units and south of the city of Sabah Al-Ahmad residential city with 45,000 — total number of 109,000 housing units.

The minister stressed to achieve the desired goal and commitment to the program schedule the PAHC should be exempted from advanced censorship by the State Audit Bureau and the Central Tenders Committee. This is in addition to the formation of a permanent committee headed by PAHC comprising members from all regulatory authorities.

In the meantime, Director of the Savings and Credit Bank, Salah Al-Mudhaf was quoted as saying the bank has improved its performance and developed regulations to achieve flexibility in its work by reducing the administrative bureaucracy as well as the waiting period for a citizen to get a loan.

He added the bank had to ease the burden on the Kuwaiti people by raising the value of marriage loan to KD 6,000, including KD 2,000 gift from the government and granting Kuwaiti women a KD 45,000 housing loan.

Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Al-Rashid thanked the Ministers and his accompanying team for their preparation and explanation of this issue and wished them good luck and a speedy resolution to the housing problem.