2010

Aisha Al-Omran

Internship Report American University of Kuwait

21-May-10

Ministry of foreign affairs

This internship in the ministry of finance, economic sector, allowed me to
experience the real extent of the occupation I have chosen for my future. I really
thank AUK for giving me this chance to try out the job before really applying for
the Ministry of Finance.

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 Index

1. Introduction…………………………………………………… 3
2. Description of the Organization…………………………….. 4
3. Description of My Internship……….………………………. 4
4. Conclusion……………………………………………………. 9

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 Internship Final Report

MGMT 470 – At Ministry of Finance

Introduction:

This internship in the ministry of finance, sector, allowed me to experience the real extent of the

occupation I have chosen for my future. I really thank AUK for giving me this chance to try out

the job before really applying for the Ministry of Finance. Once I have chosen this Ministry or

that position I have envisaged that it would be more interesting to me. This internship program

helped me in two major ways; the first is through the information I had access for, the other is

through trying out the real job before even applying. I have chosen this place because I want to

observe, analyze, and report on-the-job experiences so as to gain insights into working

cooperatively to accomplish institutional objectives. I was looking to professional enrichment

and take a chance for future career in the economic sector of the ministry of Finance in Kuwait.

In addition to that I wanted to be familiar with administrative nature of work in the economic

sector.

For me as an Economics major, I preferred to work within the government or the public sector to

help the economy of my beloved country. As I had an experience in the public sector, as I took

an internship in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I assumed that I will have a similar experience

or at least a similar working environment. However, I have chosen this place, the Economic

Sector, The Arab and Gulf Cooperation Department because I am really interested in the GCC

common currency issue. I wanted to know more, and be involved in the real economical life.

Throughout my work experience I have read many reading materials; such as, the unified

economic agreement of the GCC countries, Memorandum of the first meeting of the

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MENAFATF, many international agreements, minutes of meetings of GCC’s monetary union,

and the annual report of the Central Bank of Kuwait of FY 2008/2009.

Description of the Organization:

I have taken my internship in the Ministry of Finance. The ministry is one of the Kuwait’s 16

government ministries. The Ministry of finance contains thirty major departments; one of them is

The Arab and Gulf Cooperation Department which is a branch of the Economic Sector which

contains three other departments. This department is made of four main sections, the Gulf

Cooperation, the Arab cooperation, money laundering and terrorism financing, and the

institutions and organizations section. I have worked for two weeks at each section in the

department and applied my text-book-knowledge in real life economical situations.

Description of My Internship:

After I have signed my contract which was very inflexible I have agreed on the timing plan,

which is from 8 am to 12 noon. This plan would last for 6 weeks in order to complete the 126

hours. I didn’t like the timings plan from the beginning, yet I was giving up the timing flexibility

to get my hands on the information or the database that will help me to develop my skills and

enhance my intellectual development through applying the text-book-knowledge on real

economical examples. I have read and analyzed a lot of texts, manuals, data, agreements,

memorandums, and meeting minutes as well through my internship experience. Now, I can feel

that economics is a really practical type of knowledge after participating in and contributing to

an ongoing enterprise in order to relate economic theory to practice.

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On the first day my boss gave me an assignment to do, which is reading and summarizing the

“FATF Chairman’s Summery, Abu Dhabi, 17-19 February, 2010” that was written by the

organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development. I have read it, however I could not

summarize more, because it was very precise, so that, any information that is missed would make

the paper loses the idea or the purpose. I have talked to my boss about that but she said that I

must do it. So, I did what I could do and she was pleased. Yet, she asked me to translate it into

Arabic. I told her that my Arabic is not that good, and she said okay but you have to translate it

and I will help you if it’s necessary. I have taken very long time translating and my boss was not

very satisfied with the output. She pointed that my writings contains terms that is used in

informal Arabic, or maybe the slang Arabic that we use in everyday life. She tried to edit some

mistakes I have done with translation, however, I really feel that it is not useful, I have asked her

to let me do any other task other than translation. It is so boring and it makes me feel really

dizzy. I prefer analyzing, maybe summarizing to get benefit out of the articles, but translation

will not be so useful for me. It wouldn’t let me understand the paper. It limits the translator’s

mind within the meanings of each and every word itself without looking for the whole meaning.

Since translation is not my preferred task to do, and the head of the sector I am training in, which

is the section of money laundering and terrorism financing does not understand, I went to the

training department in the ministry to make everything clear with them. The training department

employees were very supportive and were very ready to lend a hand to trainees. I told them about

the situation I am in, and how my work does not meet the goals I am trying to achieve which are

clearly stated in the contract. So that, they have talked to the head of the department here and

everything went out smoothly since he was very understanding and very helpful as well. He has

just come from a business trip negotiating about the GCC Common Currency. So, I discussed the

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issue of GCC Common Currency with him as I am writing a research paper on the same topic.

He gave me important information about the most recent issues. He then gave me the access for

the library which contains files of the meetings and studies about the same subject as he was very

interested. And he told me to read and summarize these meeting minutes to know more about the

subject that I am interested in. I went to the department’s library and there were three big black

files that include the meeting minutes of the GCC monetary union.

I love the work I am doing and I really enjoy the analytical assignments, and maybe the summery

duties that is to get hands-on experience applying the tools of economic analysis to specific job

and project assignments; However, I don’t feel comfortable seeing the looks of hatred in the eyes

of the previous supervisor, which is the head of the money laundering and terrorism financing

sector. She thinks that the department’s head is spoiling me; conversely, it was not the case. On

the other hand, since translation is one of the tasks stated in the contract, under “Specific

Internship Duties”. Nonetheless, there were three other duties other than the translation of some

decisions and directives of the department, which are, to prepare a draft for a technical

committee, to prepare a final balance sheet for some organizations, to comment on some recent

economic studies.

I had a problem understanding some of the points mentioned in the meeting minutes, an

employee tried to help me out because she was there in the meeting that was held in Riyadh. My

manager told her to help me, her and another employee as well with any issue that I might face

regarding the meeting minutes. In addition to that, my boss gave me a booklet of the unified

economic agreement of the GCC countries to read it and he will discuss it with me after two days

from now. He wants me to give my comments and prepare some questions to discuss it with him.

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I have read the booklet and tried to understand everything in there to be able to discuss it with

the head of the Gulf cooperation section. I do not like memorizing the articles word by word; I

want to understand it so that I can criticize it and prepare some questions to ask him during our

conversation, to impress him in addition to the fact that I would enrich my information in that

aspect which I am very interested in. I have discussed the GCC Economic Agreement with my

boss and he was very impressed! He told me that he didn’t expect that I know a lot about this

subject. I really feel very satisfied after the preparation that took me two days. Besides, I really

got benefit out of this conversation. I got many new details about the GCC economic issues as he

spotted lights on the monetary union issue. I have worked on the three folders and I have

summarized the whole thing. They wanted me to be done with the summery. It won’t take long

because I have taken notes of the important things. I know it won’t be fun “copying and pasting”

but at least I know that I will do it correctly.

I have moved to the Arab cooperation section, they gave me a booklet that discusses the free

trade zones in the Arab Region. I am starting working on that booklet; it contains case studies

about the economic development in the Arab Region. The booklet was very useful for me as an

Economics student. I have read it and discussed it with the head of the Arab cooperation section

and he liked the questions I have asked while we were discussing the free trade zones in the Arab

world issue. In addition, he asked me to summarize it and write down my personal opinion

towards the subject. He then assigned me an agenda for a meeting that has been done since 2008.

He was teaching me how to organize a meeting agenda. I have learned that agenda must contain

four major sections, that are, the table of the main points, discussion of the points and any other

detail that is related to the point must be written, personal opinion, or the department’s point of

view for the issue, and lastly the recommendations about it. Agendas were so easy to do for me;

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I enjoyed collecting data and analyzing the country’s position and point of view in many

economic sectors in different aspects.

For last but not least, I have finally come across the section of institutions and organizations that

is the forth and the last section of the department and my new boss gave me a paper about the

Arab Institute to analyze and he wants me to update him three times a day which is an

accomplishment. Others didn’t want to see me more than once a day. I have discussed the paper

with the new boss. He was totally unhappy with my “lack of understanding” of the paper. This

was due to the language. The paper is written in Arabic with too much of economic terms that I

was trying to translate to understand it better. Yet it is obvious that the translation did not help

me that much. He then asked me to analyze the paper in a written document. I am doing the

writings in Arabic for the summery and the analysis. I feel that it is too difficult to understand

rather than expressing! The boss is also unpleasant with my attitude at work. He does not want

me to interact with anyone around me! It impossible! I told him that I was asking them for help

to understand the paper better. So, he was too upset ad might be disappointed. He then asked me

to stop working on this paper. He asked me to download the latest Annual Report of Central

Bank of Kuwait from their website since it is written in English, and they do not have many

English materials, read it, then summarizes it and analyzes it. I have read through the Annual

Report of Central Bank of Kuwait for Fiscal Year 2008/2009. This was the last report available

online for the previous Fiscal year. I was trying to finish it as soon as I can because the paper

was very long. The annual report of the CBK of the previous fiscal year is 48 pages long. I am

supposed to summarize it, analyze it and then check and comment on the balance sheets that are

attached to the annual report. I have done it successfully and the section’s head was pleased with

me efforts, and at least now he appreciated my work. This was the only time I felt that my efforts

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are been valued with this supervisor. After I have finished discussing the CBK’s annual report

with him, he assigned me to do a balance sheet of the Patent Office of the Gulf Cooperation

Council. It’s too long and it needs too much work. I have calculated numbers to figure out the

totals of assets and liabilities of that institution. They want me to compare contrast between this

year’s balance sheet and the previous year’s balance sheet.

Conclusion:

I truly believe that internships are very stimulating experiences to all students. It gets you into

the real job practice. It is the implication of knowledge that is taken within the university in the

real life situations. Internships are very practical in many senses and very realistic way to apply

the university knowledge on the real life obstacles in economics of Kuwait and the Gulf and the

Arab regions as well. This internship enriched my professional skills at workplace, as I am now

able to analyze, criticize, evaluate, translate prepare a balance sheet for institutions and

organizations, and prepare an agenda for a technical committee. Through that I truly feel familiar

with the administrative nature of the work in an economic sector. Furthermore, I am very proud

of participating in such a dynamic department which helped me to play a part and add to a

continuing activity that helped me relating the text-book economic theories to the real life out of

the university environment. I felt totally satisfied and fulfilled applying the tools of economic

analysis to the assignments they have given me in the Gulf, and Arab Cooperation Department,

Economic Sector, Ministry of Finance. After finishing the internship, I have recognized that my

specific internship goals and objectives were met successfully as I have enriched my abilities at

work, participated and relate my studies to the practice, got hands on experience, gained insights

into working cooperatively to accomplish institutional or governmental objectives, and I have

offered a job in the department. Though, I am not even thinking in working in this department,

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because as I saw, females are not getting high positions in the public sector. This is one reason,

the other is, public sector here in Kuwait lacks for motivations. In addition to that, promotions

depend on your relatives and Wasta as well as it for personal motives. However, I have had an

internship experience in the ministry of foreign affairs, and I found it very different from that

one, my experience there was similar to my experience in the private sector, as the environment

was very motivating, the managers were supportive, guiding employees and assisting them and

share their experiences with others. Yet, it was not an economics related department, and I would

prefer to work within a department that is related to my major to apply the theoretical part that I

have studied in the university.

If I had the opportunity to repeat the internship I would go for the private sector as it appreciates

hard workers and the role of women in the society as well, also they are more flexible and deals

with the trainee as a human not a machine. Moreover, I have learnt a lot about myself, one is that

I work better under pressure; other is that I am a challenge taker.

When I return to AUK I would take the advantage of the information I have and make use out of

it within my class participation. I would also advice other students to take internships in private

sector since it would be more helpful for students.

At last but not least, I would thank you for the great opportunity that AUK gave to me to interact

with the real life experience that did let me get hands on experience and apply the economic

tools that I have learned in class room to the practical part of the economics.

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