No booths and kiosks allowed inside cooperative societies in Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait Municipality has refused to grant official licenses to booths and kiosks within the premises of cooperative societies, despite the Ministry of Social Affairs and Community Development’s attempts to provide the necessary licenses from the relevant authorities to facilitate the owners of small and medium enterprises, and to achieve the country’s vision to support this category of young people, reports Al- Qabas daily.

Even though there are a number of kiosks or booths in cooperative societies, most of these activities, especially those located on the ground floor of the supermarkets, do not carry the required licenses from state authorities, especially those issued by the Kuwait Municipality, due to which they are in continuous violation of the prevailing regulations.

In this context, the Director of the Cooperative Development Sector at the Ministry of Social Affairs Hiyam Al-Khudair said, “The booths in cooperative societies are not approved by the Kuwait Municipality. Therefore it is not possible to grant and facilitate access sites and activities that are not approved by the concerned authorities in the country. Kuwait Municipality is the reason why booths are not allowed on the ground floor, as it is the authority concerned with determining the activities authorized to be established in cooperative societies.”

She explained that the Ministry of Social Affairs received several letters from the municipality, affirming the prohibition on the establishment of booths and kiosks in general in cooperative societies.

However, during a meeting with municipal officials to discuss the issue, no objection was raised to the presence of such activities, provided that the booths do not have obstacles that could cause crowding among market goers, and not to impede movement in cases of fire and others. Al-Khudair stressed the keenness of the Ministry of Social Affairs to facilitate the affairs of owners of small and medium enterprises, but according to the regulations and decisions in force.

She affirmed that the ministry, since the launch of the initiative of the late Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad to sponsor the owners of small and medium enterprises, has sought to find several areas to support them and facilitate their transactions, as well as urge young people to rely on themselves in shaping their future.

Al-Khudair indicated that one of the foundations on which the ministry relied for achieving the public interest is the issuance of ministerial decisions regulating small and medium-sized enterprises through which it tries to enact laws and decisions that take care of the interests of this category and preserve its rights and the rights of cooperative societies.

She added that these decisions facilitated the use of the law of the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises to allocate and deduct ten percent of the shops and partitions (shelves) in all cooperative societies to be distributed to owners of small and medium enterprises in accordance with the systems and procedures followed and in force.