At the outset, I wish to express my gratitude to First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahad Yousef Saud Al-Sabah for convening a meeting with local business owners. This initiative offered considerable reassurance to the public, as it steered matters back to the right direction. However, to be entirely candid, not every company that erred did so intentionally.
In fact, several issues stem from state institutions. The main factors contributing to these challenges include withholding public funds. Delays in salary disbursement occur frequently because the state withholds payments owed to companies. This is in addition to administrative hesitation. A huge number of government bodies are headed by acting officials who refrain from taking decisive actions out of fear of liability in the future, thereby, creating operational bottlenecks.
Regional factors like external and economic pressure, coupled with escalating costs of raw materials and essential services, stalled project timelines, slowed overall progress, and delayed the fulfillment of financial commitments. The current circumstances are the expected outcome of the regional situation. In response, neighboring Gulf nations acted proactively. Their central banks instructed commercial lenders to immediately suspend demands for loan payments from businesses, hence, extending debt timelines, along with additional supportive measures.
These interventions shielded local firms from defaulting. In contrast, Kuwait’s approach has remained stagnant since the crisis began, relying on legal enforcement actions that only compounded the strain on struggling enterprises. This unsustainable trajectory necessitates urgent reconsideration, particularly in light of the delicate and concerning environment in the region. We commend the First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister for instructing Director General of the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) Rabab Al-Osaimi to meet with business owners later this week in order to address the pressing difficulties. Thousands of firms are currently unable to meet payroll obligations due to such underlying factors.
Depending only on rigid and automated metrics could lead to failure to consider the extraordinary pressures that businesses are facing, thus, accelerating the risk of their collapse. Although Kuwait remains a compassionate country toward citizens and residents, reality does not always correspond to expectations. Without a doubt, there are unscrupulous actors, such as human traffickers or shady company and factory owners. The competent authorities can easily spot them, as the government is fully equipped to separate the honest from the dishonest. Instead of intentionally withholding salaries, most companies that fell behind on salary disbursement were pushed into this predicament due to severe hardships.
Therefore, it is unfair to freeze business license renewals, suspend administrative operations required for routine activities or exclude companies from bidding on tenders. These punitive actions have been proven to be disastrous for enterprises, putting them in an impossible situation. Let us join forces to overcome these obstacles. The harm inflicted on individuals by these measures is beyond doubt— a concern that was highlighted during the meeting of First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousef with the affected business owners.
Given His Excellency’s decisive leadership and commitment to do what is right, we respectfully appeal to him: “Please refrain from putting additional strain on these enterprises or further tightening regulatory restrictions through withholding the license and residency renewal or barring them from bidding on tenders.” It is worth pointing out that a computer functions as an unyielding processor of instructions, executing tasks without leniency according to its underlying code. If the restrictive practices persist, businesses will be at the risk of falling into insolvency within months— an outcome that will destabilize the national economy and devastate commercial enterprise owners and their workforce.
