Four out of every five Diriyah Gate staff are Saudis

Diriyah Gate will restore the historical city and create an international tourism destination. (SPA)

• The Diriyah Gate project has made great strides in its efforts to hire citizens, especially women

JEDDAH: Four out of every five employees on the Diriyah Gate development are Saudis, its CEO revealed on Wednesday.
The Diriyah Gate project has made great strides in its efforts to hire citizens, especially women, said Jerry Inzerillo, CEO of the Diriyah Gate Development Authority.
“The thing that I’m most proud about is that 83 percent of our staff are Saudi, 36 percent of our staff Saudi women, 16 percent of our Saudi women are in management,” he told delegates at a seminar in Riyadh on Wednesday.
The executive also highlighted the youthful profile of the team.
“Sixty-five percent of the Kingdom’s population is under the age of 35. My staff, the average age is 31. If you take me out of probably drops to 24,” Inzerillo said.
Under the Vision 2030 goals, Saudi Arabia aims for female participation in the labor force to be at 30 percent by 2030, a target it has achieved ahead of schedule.
The CEO also attended the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai last week, where he gave details of the $20 billion project.
Diriyah Gate is being built primarily for Saudis who got their education abroad and are returning to the Kingdom, mostly settling in the capital, including professionals, Inzerillo told Bloomberg.
The project is being built on the outskirts of Riyadh, which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to expand from its current population of 5 million to between 15 and 20 million by 2030 and become one of the 10 richest cities in the world.
The first phase of the project is estimated at $20 billion, the DGDA CEO said.
“At the end of this year and the first quarter of 2022, we will complete the construction of some assets in Diriyah,” Inzerillo said. “We will open the new Al-Bujairi District and 19 restaurants in addition to new hotels and gardens. We have also planted 22,000 trees.”
“We invested $1 billion in the infrastructure of these projects,” he said. “We also launched the Wadi Safar development project, where the first hotel and museum will soon open. We will show ready assets in the first quarter of 2022.”