Kuwait’s five-year plan will require 100,000 extra foreign labourers to be brought into the country, according to Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).

“Total labour in the five-year plan will be 100,000 extra foreign workers at its peak,” KPC managing director for planning, Mohammad al-Farhoud, told MEED. “Arrangements are being made and the influx of workers is expected to go ahead without causing problems.”

Kuwait is expecting a construction boom in coming years after contract awards for projects hit a record in 2014.

A total of $25.4bn in contracts were awarded in 2014, up from $9.2bn in 2013.

$16.5bn of the contracts signed in 2014 were for oil and gas projects, with contracts worth $12bn awarded for Kuwait’s Clean Fuels Project, which will see the Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries expanded and upgraded.

Next year, contracts for the Al-Zour New Refienry Project worth $11.5bn are set to be signed, along with a contract worth $4.3bn for the Lower Fars Heavy Oil (LFHO) development project.

Over recent years, Indian workers have been favoured by construction companies working in Kuwait.

There are currently 800,000 Indian nationals living in Kuwait, making them the country’s biggest migrant community.

On 4 January, India’s government backed down over new regulations that required Kuwaiti employers of Indian female domestic workers to deposit a KD720 ($2,450) bank guarantee.

Kuwait threatened to ban all Indian nationals from moving to Kuwait after the measure was implemented in September.

The bank guarantee was designed to cover repatriation of the housemaid and unpaid salary in cases where the employer failed to keep to an agreed contract.