Private sector needs to hire Saudis to win govt contracts

The Ministry of Health (MoH) which is the largest spender on public welfare in the Kingdom is tightening the noose on private sector companies involved in the ministry’s operations to hire unemployed Saudi youth.
The MoH has been awarding the highest number of contracts to private companies for the maintenance and construction of health facilities across the Kingdom. Now it is stressing these companies to hire Saudi youth to work in private firms that are involved in the maintenance of health facilities in the Kingdom, sources told Arab News.
The Health Ministry is also demanding that unemployed but qualified Saudi youth be trained to handle equipment used in health facilities which is mandatory to all maintenance companies. The training period will be from one-three months at the expense of the private firms themselves. The ministry also set a norm for Saudi trainees to comprise a minimum of 10 percent of the existing workforce in the firm.
Sources revealed that private firms now require that their personnel, including Saudis furnish them with the details of their wages. The firms also have to document periodically their efforts in recruiting Saudi youth through newspaper ads asking for Saudi youth to fill positions, sources said. It is only after the firms have sent this information to the health ministry will it take the decision to renew or award a contract to the firm. The ministry of health is coordinating with the ministries of labor and civil services to implement this strategy.
In a similar development, the labor ministry is also working to enhance the percentage of Saudi youth in the water and electricity production utilities in the Kingdom through the SWCC (Saudi Water Conversion Corporation) and SEC (Saudi Electricity Company) to train and recruit Saudi youth for the jobs in the Kingdom’s water and power plants according to reports.
There are currently 600 Saudis who graduated from the exclusive training institute of power and water and are employed in the major power and desalination plants in Kingdom.
The Ministry of Labor intends to increase the number of trainee graduates in this sector by two thousand within three years, reports said.
Saudi Arabian Airlines has also announced that it is working with the ministry of labor to train and hire Saudi youth in ground operations including aircraft maintenance in the Kingdom.
The Japanese company, Hitachi, the main contractor of Saudi Aramco’s refinery in Jazan has also entered into an agreement with Jazan University to train Saudi students in the field of mechanical engineering to facilitate their recruitment in the plants after completing their training.