KUWAIT CITY, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Kuwait is ready to hire about 2,000 expatriate medical personnel for new hospitals and clinics, the daily newspaper Kuwait Times said Tuesday.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) of Kuwait has prepared a memo on its needs of doctors and technical medical staff who should be hired to operate new hospitals and clinics, the newspaper quoted an informed source as saying, noting that the memo has been sent to the Kuwaiti Civil Service Commission (CSC) for approval.

The memo shows that MoH needs more than 500 doctors and over 1,500 nurses, radiology technicians and other support medical staff members from India, Philippines and other Asian countries.

MoH has started laying off expats working in administrative positions to replace them with citizens, leaving only a few expats in such positions until they become 100 percent Kuwaitized within two years, the source said.

MoH had informed CSC that it will take at least 10 years for Kuwaiti graduates to meet the need of medical and nursing staff.