RIYADH, 19 January — The Ministry of Municipal and Rural affairs has created 15,000 new job opportunities to citizens by Saudizing the grocery stores (baqalas) which sell vegetables and fruits Kingdomwide. The ministry has already started taking practical steps to implement the new move.
Muhammad Al-Jarallah, minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, has issued the required orders to all municipal authorities.
The ministry's decision stipulates that the small baqalas, which occupy a space of less than 400 square meters, should employ only Saudis while the larger supermarkets, that are 400 square meters or above, should employ Saudi personnel as cashiers. The move comes as part of nationalizing and opening up new areas of employment as well as to weed out the practice of cover-up of illegal expat workers.
Thousands of expat laborers, who were expelled from the vegetable markets and replaced by a Saudi workforce by the previous government's decision, have migrated in large numbers to almost 10,000 groceries out of a total of 40,000 baqalas in the Kingdom.
Al-Jarallah said, "A good number of citizens will benefit from this order which comes in line with the directives of the Interior Minister Prince Naif who is also the chairman of the Manpower Council based on the observations of the Higher Committee for Saudization headed by Riyadh Governor Prince Salman. It has been observed that several vegetable and fruit stalls in the residential districts have been converted to groceries in addition to selling vegetables with the objective of retaining expat workers."
Al-Jarallah added, "The decision has been practically implemented with the circular sent to all mayors' and municipal offices." The minister also appealed for the cooperation of all citizens and officials to implement orders which serve the best interests of the public. The ministry has also recently noted the increasing practice of expat laborers selling groceries in pick-up vans in several residential districts and on streets or delivering goods to baqalas and to private homes. Such operations, which amount to a violation of the regulations to Saudize the grocery sector, are undertaken by the laborers expelled from the vegetable markets.
According to independent estimates the number of such delivery vans, which mainly operate in large cities, exceed 3,000.
The number of Saudi beneficiaries from the ban of illegal workers from Kingdom's vegetable markets ranged between 15,000 to 17,000 while over 15,000 expat workers were driven out of the markets, according to informed sources. However, several Saudi customers complain that some of the Saudi workers lack the experience and salesmanship based on customer satisfaction. Customers hope that the situation will change with growing experience in the new area of work. The Saudi sellers in the vegetable markets are reportedly receiving higher profits ranging from SR500- to SR1,000 daily. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
