KUWAIT: On the fifth of this month, the Ministry of Interior issued a paralysing decree for the taxi owners. The Ministerial Decree 1068/2006, obliges the roaming taxi owners to have at least 30 per cent Kuwaiti drivers. This condition seems to be impossible to realise by the taxi owners. This brought the taxi drivers to hold a protest in front of the Parliament yesterday. As a part of the Kuwaitisation plan, the law number 182/2004 obliged the private sector companies to have certain percentage of Kuwaitis working in. For the taxi offices it was two per cent. The new ministry regulation increased the percentage to 30.

"This is unacceptable and in fact impossible to realise. Where can we find all these Kuwaiti drivers, who aren't students, retired, or working somewhere else? The new resolution says that the driver must be a full time driver, who will be paid health insurance and social security," said Sa'as Al-Khorafi, one of the roaming taxi owners.
All gathered taxi owners agreed that they will all end up in prison. "Now we have huge loans. I have only KD 100,000, and I think this is the smallest amount. There are some of the people who gathered here today having KD 500,000 or 600,000. The Ministry of Interior stopped all our transactions, especially the car technical checking renewal and others. So we can't work. We still have to pay the instalments of the cars. We will all end up in prison, as we won't be able to pay the instalments," said Mishari Al-Mutairi, another taxi owner.
Convincing young Kuwaitis to work as taxi drivers is almost impossible. "Now I'm working in this field for 10 years, and still I didn't succeed to bring a single Kuwaiti taxi driver to work in my company. The young guys refuse to do this job, and they think of the situation when they want to get married. They think if they went to a woman to marry her, their parents will never agree to marry a taxi driver. It's very difficult. So what shall we do now? We agree to employ them, but we didn't find any. This is not our fault," Al-Mutairi added.
There is a purpose behind this regulation. "We all know this new regulation was issued for the benefit of one big company. They want to make a monopoly and work without competition, and this is not fair. There are 600 taxi owners, and most probably we will be imprisoned if we didn't find a solution for this problem. We are the citizens of Kuwait, and the government must take care of us," said Eissa Mirza, another taxi owner.
The new ministry decree should be applied for the new owners applying to get a license for this business. "We blame the government. Why didn't they told us from the beginning, when we applied for the license. Why did they let us stuck in the middle now with all the debts on our back, which we are not able to pay now if we can't work. Why the government is against us? We at least have legal licence to practice our work, but what about the illegal taxis?  Why don't they arrest the those drivers who don't have licenses. They rent cars or have their own, and just roam in the road seeking for passengers ?" Al-Mirza further said.
All the protesting taxi owners call for the cancellation of the new ministry decree. "We need to find harmony between the administrative regulations and the law of the employment percentage. H.H. the Amir knows the responsibility of these people gathering here today towards the investment companies. This problem will lead to another problem with these companies that will not receive their debts from the taxi owners, and this all will affect the national economy," Abdulrahman Al-Damkhi, a roaming taxi owner pointed out.
One of the owners, who didn't mention his name, addressed his threatening message and said: "Today we gathered here in a peaceful protest. But we will take serious action at the next protest if this problem is not solved soon. We may close the roads, and this will cause chaos. We simply want to work. So put normal conditions such as for the rest of the private companies, and not impossible ones.".

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