Automobile re-exports can spur jobs drive

JEDDAH: A top Saudi industrialist says opening up new fields of investment is critical to drive Kingdom’s economic growth.
“Equally important is the opening of more training centers to develop skills of youth, both for their job prospects and becoming owners of small enterprises,” Abdullah Al-Kraidees, president of Al-Jazirah Vehicles Agencies, told Arab News in an exclusive interview.
SMEs play a major role in the national economy. They can provide youth with job opportunities. They can also own them and run successfully if they learn to manage and develop them well and thus shape their career, he said.
Al-Kraidees, who has more than 25 years’ experience in the field of auto business, has called for new systems that facilitate importing of products, including vehicles.
He said the Kingdom loses large sums due to lack of a system that allows traders to export products to neighboring countries after they are imported into to the Kingdom.
He also said that his aim is to create a Saudi auto parts market that will enable more young Saudis to work in their own workshops.
Opening auto service and workshops centers, training more Saudis to join the job market and facilitating foreign investment were three major points that Al-Kraidees highlighted during his interview.

(Click here to read the interview)