Saudization program
The new policy of the Saudi government to impose a fee on private companies employing more foreign workers might not prove to be very effective in addressing the issue of unemployment of Saudi nationals. The private entities that find it economical to employ expatriates rather than Saudis will not mind paying the fee as they would still be saving substantial sums.
Undoubtedly, each and every Saudi national has the right to be employed and the private sector only can absorb the huge number bearing in mind that there are over 1 million registered as unemployed now and there will be over 8 million Saudis who will require jobs in the next two decades.
I believe that this serious issue needs to be handled from different angles and by developing a comprehensive policy both from the short term and the long-term perspective. As an immediate measure, there is a need to curb or rather eliminate the system of hiring or kafala of employees by large sized public and private entities through various local manpower suppliers.
This will create an immediate opportunity to employ a large number of Saudi nationals. The process of setting up an entity to recruit and employ foreign workers needs to be expedited. This body should be allowed to process the requests for recruitment of foreign manpower by the private entities only after determining that there is no Saudi national who matches the specific qualifications and job requirements. This should be determined not only by conducting a thorough search of the database of the employees registered as unemployed but also publicizing the requirement in the local media and giving the Saudi nationals full opportunity to offer their services.
Most importantly, in order to continue with the sustained economic development without depending upon the foreign workers and expertise, it is a must that the whole system of education is completely overhauled to give more emphasis to skill and profession based education both for the boys and girls. — Safi H. Jannaty, Dammam
Saudization program
