Sabah al-Ahmad government held first meeting; reform challenge
Kuwait, Politics, 7/16/2003

The new Kuwaiti government yesterday held its first meeting under the chairmanship of Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah after it took the constitutional oath before Kuwait's Amir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, in preparations to discuss its program before the parliament in order to win confidence.

The first Kuwaiti government chaired by Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad, is facing several social, economic and social tests, despite the fact that Sheikh al-Ahmad is used to the process of running governmental affairs in addition to his experience in having the post of the foreign minister for 40 years, and this was always during the absence and the illness of the crown prince Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, who used to assume the post of the prime minister.

The Kuwaiti minister of energy Sheikh Ahmad Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah told journalists "we can do a lot for Kuwait. We have to work for development and economic revival." However, members in the new government said in brief statements to journalists that "they will concentrate on fighting corruption in administration including the military establishment," according to the defense minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Hamad al-Sabah.

The government is invited to work in collaboration with the new parliament in which Islamists are effective inside it, in order to activate several frozen reform projects. Among these projects are the project of privatization operations, proposed in 1992 and frozen since then, another project on taxation. and a third project on the participation of foreign capitals by a 7 billion dollars project in order to renovate oil fields in the north.

In an article published yesterday, the American ambassador in Kuwait, Richard Jones, said that there are "numerous challenges before the new government in this difficult phase." He expressed his hope "to seize this unique opportunity" in order to attain progress in the field of social and economic reforms. He indicated in this regard to the issue of the political rights of woman which the new government can solve in "line with democracy." Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad had received members of the new government who took their constitutional oath before him. According to the constitution, the government has to win the confidence of the elected parliament before next Saturday.

Previous Stories:
  Kuwait: the formation of the first government outside the control of the crown prince   (7/15/2003)
  Amir of Kuwait appoints Sabah al-Ahmad a Prime Minister   (7/14/2003)
  Syria - Kuwait informational dialogue initiated   (7/12/2003)

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