Kuwait: GCC ministers to discuss current regional events

The GCC Council of Ministers is reportedly set to meet shortly in order to coordinate their stance on current events in the region, with particular reference to the situations in Syria and Libya, as well as conferring on the GCC initiative on the crisis in Yemen. According to one high-level insider, the ministers are likely to formulate an initiative on Syria like the one already in place on Yemen, which will follow a similar strategy to that put forward in previous statements and match Turkish moves to find a solution to the turmoil besetting Syria at present. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the insider said that the GCC nations' foreign ministers are set to put forward a joint strategy to be discussed at a series of UN meetings set to take place next month fo cusing on the uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In other news, the government is apparently set to request amendments to the laws governing the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) system, after the ministerial economic committee urged changes to the current system, which it insists is incapable of meeting the objectives required of it. One source close to the committee explained that the proposed amendments would be submitted to the National Assembly (parliament) Council shortly to be put on the agenda for discussion during the upcoming parliamentary term as an "urgent" priority issue. A number of projects using the BOT system are currently suspended since no firms are interested in bidding given the numerous bureaucratic complexities involved in the system at present, the source explained. The source also asserted that the government is untroubled by the prospect of being questioned over the proposed amendments since they are concerned with benefiting the Kuwaiti economy rather than certain individuals, as some have already claimed, and will only be passed with the agreement of the NA Council.