Kuwait is the latest part of the United Arab Emirates to launch a serious campaign aimed at getting more expats in the country.
Kuwait is currently experiencing a shortage of skilled workers, especially in sectors such as computing and technology. The Kuwaiti Government is now considering giving skilled expats citizen status as an incentive to get them into the country. The main concern is that Dubai is plucking all the best expats, and now the Kuwait Government want to get one up on their UAE neighbours.
Dr Sami Alfaraj, president of the Kuwait Centre for Strategic Studies, said: “Dubai gets the crème of expats but foreign workers are vital for Kuwait. We see the expat community as part of the fabric of society. We could not have managed the oil industry without expats, especially at the beginning. If we are thinking about new avenues of industry and technology to beat others we need more people specialising in that.”
Under the new scheme the current sponsorship scheme would be scrapped in favour of the new system that gives expats permits without sponsors.