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Finance Minister Mustapha Al-Shamali and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) managing director Bader Al-Saad have reportedly been asked by Kuwaiti investment companies to set up a fund worth KD300m ($1.1bn) to help settle their debt in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Nouriya Al-Sabeeh looks far from safe, as Islamists gear up for another ministerial grilling, but the wider reform drive should continue as the parliamentary opposition lacks coherence on most non-social policy issues.

As Kuwait prepares for the 21 October start of the parliamentary session, Islamist assembly members are preparing to campaign for the amendment of Article 2 of the constitution to bring all legislation into compliance with Islamic principles.

MPs have called for an investigation into procedures at the 17 May legislative elections, after a Constitutional Court ruling annulled the election of two MPs over discrepancies with the vote count. The court ruling means that tribal, independent candidates Mubarak Al-Waalan Al-Mutairi

John Leonard Monterona, Middle East co-ordinator for Migrante, a leading independent organisation representing Filipino expatriate workers, told GSN his group would like to see sponsorship completely abolished.

Kuwait Energy Company has purchased Oil Search’s assets in Egypt and Yemen, and announced an agreement with the Somali government, underlining chief executive Sara Akbar’s determination to make the Kuwait-based indie a significant player in emerging hydrocarbons frontiers. A London listing is expected in 2009

The Holiday Inn in Beirut, ravaged during the 1975-90 civil war when it was used by militias as a base for fighting, remains a ruin due to differences within Kuwait's ruling family, sources in the Lebanese capital told GSN.

The 615,000 b/d Al-Zour oil refinery, expected to be one of the world’s largest, is facing further delays after the cabinet agreed to refer the project to the State Audit Bureau of Kuwait (SABK) for investigation in response to protests against signing the final contracts by opposition members in the Popular Action Bloc. In May, state-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) awarded four construction contracts worth $8.3bn to one Japanese and four South Korean companies. An estimated $2bn fifth contract was awarded to US project manager Fluor. Oil, Electricity and Water Minister Mohammed Al-Olaim had already gained support from a parliamentary committee to award the contracts after investigating claims that some contracts were not awarded to the lowest bidder.

Through history Kuwait has energetically asserted its independence, while Iraqi nationalists have jealously eyed what Saddam Hussein called his ‘Nineteenth Province’.  Cross-border connections run deep, and these are impacting on business today

Following liberation seven months after Saddam Hussein’s invasion, GSN wrote that the Gulf war’s aftermath was “quickly bringing to Kuwait a painful awareness that the real problems are only just beginning”. The late John Christie observed that while “the number of Kuwaitis who would like to see the Al-Sabah replaced can be counted on the fingers of one hand, the number of Kuwaitis who may come to demand a genuine share in the government process… can reasonably be estimated as a high proportion of the total” population

GSN in August 1990 gave its initial round-up of Saddam Hussein’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait, which then editor, the late John Christie, rightly said marked a watershed in Middle East politics,