Kuwait NRIs unaffected by ongoing global meltdown

Despite the economic recession in the Gulf, Indians working in Kuwait claim they are quite unaffected by it.

Kuwait City, Apr 9 : Despite the economic recession in the Gulf, Indians working in Kuwait claim they are quite unaffected by it.

In a population of 3.4 million people in Kuwait, 600,000 are Indians. The Indian community, therefore, forms one of the largest expatriate groups here.

Najida, an Indian woman working in a travel management company, has been staying in Kuwait for the last five years.

She has been working in the travel industry for the last 15 years and believes that the impact of recession is very slow on Indians living and working in Kuwait.

"So far I would say, the recession does not have much impact on the Indians as yet ... unlike Dubai or other neighbouring countries, it has a much slower impact here," said Najida.

Insia Anwar, another Indian working in Kuwait as a managing director of Varco Centre (a company dealing with computers) said that although there is some news of job cuts in other Gulf regions like Dubai, Oman and Saudi Arabia, the economy of Kuwait is quite strong.

"Honestly, the economic slowdown hasn't really affected this part of Kuwait so much," said Anwar.

Indians living in Kuwait are a diverse lot with a sizeable number of people involved in high-end well-paying jobs as managers in banks, petroleum companies, investment fund firms and IT firms.

Indians also forms the back-up community, keeping the wheels of the day-to-day life running in the Gulf. Cooks, chauffeurs, housemaids and clerks, mostly from South India, have added to the diversity of this oil-rich Gulf country. By Lokendra Singh

ANI