RIYADH, 11 August — There are about 60,000 jobs in the gold and jewelry sector available for Saudis following a recent government drive to nationalize all jobs involving their sale and production.
Gold traders in Riyadh told Arab News that they needed more than 60,000 trained Saudis to fill positions worth SR25 million in monthly salaries.
At present, only 10 percent of the 60,000 workers in the sector are Saudis and the market requires 20,000 Saudi workers in the initial stage.
Interior Minister Prince Naif, chairman of the Manpower Council, announced that from July 22 only Saudi citizens would be allowed to work in shops that produce and sell gold. He has already directed provincial governors and ministers of commerce, industry and labor to enforce the law.
According to latest statistics, there are 6,000 shops, 350 factories and hundreds of workshops employing more than 60,000 workers in the gold industry. Saudi Arabia is the fourth largest gold market in the world, with annual sales amounting to SR8 billion and an annual demand estimated at 200 tons.
Jewelry shops in different parts of the Kingdom have been shut down for not recruiting trained Saudis. At Taiba, Owais and Qasman shopping centers in Riyadh, 107 shops have been closed down during the past few days.
“These closures have increased sales at 40 shops at Taiba and Owais shopping centers by 200 percent,” traders told Arab News.
Saleh Al-Hammad, owner of Al-Hammad Jewelry, said the Saudization drive would increase job opportunities for Saudis and end commercial fraud in the sector.
Abdullah Al-Medhyan, director of Northern Markets at Muhammad Al-Ramizan Trading Est., said his company had made preparations for Saudization in advance. The market, he added, was not affected by the closure of certain shops.
“This is very clear from the fact that people go on purchasing gold and jewelry as though everything was still normal,” Al-Hammad said.
Chambers of commerce and industry in various parts of the Kingdom have started training Saudis to fill the vacant jobs in the market. Some major gold companies provide on-the-job training to Saudi youths at showrooms and workshops.
However, Sami Al-Mohanna, owner of the largest gold factory in Saudi Arabia, said the decision to nationalize jobs in the sector would lead to the closure of 70 percent of all jewelry shops and factories.
Al-Mohanna, an adviser to the World Gold Council, also told Al-Watan daily that the Saudization drive would reduce sales by SR3.36 billion monthly. He proposed retaining foreign workers for some time so Saudi workers could benefit from their expertise.
According to a recent study, 60 percent of gold shoppers are men and 40 percent women. Saudis account for 70 percent of the consumers, with a market share of SR6.7 billion. Other Arab buyers are second, with 25 percent, and non-Arab foreigners estimated at five percent. “The market peaks in the vacation season,” says Omar Al-Kabdi, an official of the Al-Romaizan for Gold and Diamonds.
A large number of people sell their used jewelry for low prices to raise money for vacations abroad or to help cover the high cost of weddings.
According to the World Gold Council, gold demand in Saudi Arabia was 63.5 tons in the first quarter of this year, down three percent compared to the same period in 2000.
