NEW COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER ADMITS HIS APPOINTMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 000657 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARPI EB/CIP/BA FOR AGIBBS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2016 TAGS: ECON ECPS BEXP PGOV PINR KU SUBJECT: NEW COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER ADMITS HIS APPOINTMENT WAS POLITICAL; BUT LAYS OUT AMBITIOUS PLANS ANYWAY Classified By: Ambassador Richard LeBaron for reason 1 ¶1. (C) Summary and Comment: During a February 22 meeting with the Ambassador, new Minister of Communications Dr. Ismail Al-Shatti said that the main reason for his appointment to the Cabinet is his twenty-five year friendship with the new Prime Minister. He also cited his leadership within the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) as another reason for his appointment. The Minister laid out a number of plans and projects within the communications, civil aviation and ports sectors, all under his purview, including significant privatization and e-government plans. Comment: During our meeting, Dr. Al-Shatti repeatedly described himself as a "futurist" and laid out a number of scenarios for future regional and economic development. While his appointment was clearly for political reasons, it will be interesting to watch the efforts and accomplishments of this new Minister. End Summary and Comment. New Minister Tells Us Why He Was Chosen... -------------- ¶2. (C) During a February 22 meeting with the Ambassador, new Minister of Communications Dr. Ismail Al-Shatti was candid about the reasons why he was chosen as a Minister. The first and most important reason he cited was his twenty-five year friendship with new Prime Minister Shaykh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah. "I am a close friend," he said, "I need to help him." The second reason that he cited for his inclusion in the Cabinet was because "everything is new, it's a new era." Finally, he said, the third reason is that he belongs to the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM). He said that the ICM had asked to be included in the new Cabinet and had presented five names for potential Ministerial appointments. His name was at the top of the list, he said, so, given his links to the PM, he was selected. Al-Shatti said that he was in Washington, DC when he received the call asking him to become a Minister. ...And Why Others Weren't -------------- ¶3. (C) Al-Shatti acknowledged that "liberals are not happy" with the makeup of the new Cabinet, but he explained how they had missed an opportunity to help shape it. He said that the GOK had offered to make former Parliamentary Financial and �A;Economic Committee Chairman Abdulwahab Al-Haroun the new Commerce Minister but that "the liberals had insisted on keeping (previous Minister of Commerce Abdullah) Al-Taweel," and would not supply a list of other candidates. The GOK did not want to keep Al-Taweel, he explained, so they instead chose Dr. Yousef Al-Zalzalah, a choice, he implied, that did not make the liberals happy. "My Way Is To Privatize" -------------- ¶4. (C) Al-Shatti made it clear that he was going to try to put his personal imprint on the Ministry. "My way is to privatize," he declared, and then went on to describe some of the initial meetings he has already had with his staff in his first few weeks on the job. He said that he had just met that day with the management of the Kuwait City International Airport (KCIA) and had asked them to privatize as much as possible. He specifically mentioned catering and mechanical services as potential targets for privatization. He also said that he wanted to plot out the privatization of Kuwait Airways Company (KAC),but that the process "needed a proper transition period." ¶5. (C) The Minister said that he also wanted to privatize the postal service, by giving out licenses to operate the post within Kuwait. Ministry of Communications buildings and Post Offices scattered throughout Kuwait could be reconfigured to accommodate a new "GOK mall," he explained, which would include access to all government entities in one location. Al-Shatti recognized the difficulties in carrying out these privatization efforts before the National Assembly elections in 2007 and the likely appointment of a new Cabinet, but said that he is "serious to do this in my limited time." E-Government And "Inflation Of Administration" -------------- - ¶6. (C) Al-Shatti remarked that a recent memorandum of understanding between the GOK and the Government of Singapore was only one part of a broader effort to bring e-government to Kuwait. He said that his first step would be to create a "directory of services" with listings for every conceivable service that is provided by the GOK, which he estimated at greater than 3,000 different services. He added that this directory would then help him to understand what services are actually being provided and "how many employees we really need for these functions." This would allow him "to explore the inflation of administration" in Kuwait, he said, clearly acknowledging the excess size of the government sector. Minister Responsive On Bilateral Issues -------------- ¶7. (C) The Ambassador brought to the Minister's attention a long-standing billing dispute between AT&T and the Ministry of Communications (MOC) and the Minister promised he would look into it. The Ambassador also asked about the as-yet-unsigned Open Skies Agreement and the ground handling issue. Al-Shatti said that he would look into it, and although he wanted to "open competition to all", he was not sure if the foreign airlines could be allowed to handle their own baggage without providing the services to others. (Note: We will follow up on this issue.) Port Security A Top Priority -------------- ¶8. (C) (Note: The Kuwait Ports Authority (KPA) falls under the responsibility of the Minister of Communications.) Al-Shatti said that he met with Kuwait's top port officials on his first day in office and told them that "security is the most important issue" for him. He said that Kuwait's ports should satisfy all necessary security and safety conditions in order to be on the "white list" of good ports worldwide. He said that shortly after he met with his port officials, Ministry of Interior officials came to him and said that they have a dispute with the ports employees and that certain security conditions "were not being met." He asked them to prepare a tender to establish the necessary conditions and meet all requirement and that this tender would be released shortly. A Futurist, And A Dreamer -------------- ¶9. (C) Al-Shatti referred to himself numerous times as a "futurist" noting his involvement with the Millennium Project organized by the American Council for the United Nations University. He said that he has done significant work with the Millennium Project, collaborating with Rand Corporation employees and others on developing future scenarios. He said that one of his scenarios, and what he described as "one of (his) dreams," was to build a port in Boubyan Island and link it "by a corridor" all the way through Iraq and Jordan "to Gaza and Haifa." He paused for a second and then, recognizing that the new "Islamist" Minister appeared to be advocating trade with and through Israel, added "but I can't say Haifa yet." ¶10. (C) He explained that, with a corridor from Kuwait and Iraq to Jordan and Gaza, oil refineries and other oil product plants could be built in Gaza "and would help the Middle East crisis." He said that such a project could be viable by ¶2010. Al-Shatti also identified the southern Oman port of Salalah as a potential southern point for a Middle East trade corridor. Along with these trade corridors, he called for a "new map of pipelines" for the region. ********************************************* * For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ ********************************************* * LEBARON