JEDDAH, 8 March — Saudis will now have a new avenue for training once they pass high school. Two hundred of them will be trained in skills in automobile maintenance in the first year from the next academic session. As they move into the second year of training, another fresh batch of 200 graduates will be enrolled.
The venue for training will be Saudi Japanese Automobile High Institute (SJAHI) whose construction is currently in full swing. “The institute is set to become operational in September,” SJAHI Project Director Salim Hasan Al-Asmarei told Arab News during the visit of a 19-member Japanese group to the site yesterday.
“The institute will train young Saudis for a two-year diploma course,” said Al-Asmarei who is also the director of Abdul Latif Jameel Group’s government and public relations division. Visibly impressed with the rapid development of the project was the visiting Japanese group, led by Yoshiyuki Fujisawa, chairman of the board of directors of Mizuho Financial Group’s Industrial Bank of Japan based in Tokyo.
“We’re very much impressed by the project. The institute will surely emerge among the best in Japan and elsewhere in the world,” said Fujisawa whose team is part of the 70-member group, which participated, in the two-day Saudi-Japanese Business Council that ended in Riyadh on Wednesday.
The SJAHI is located on a 72,500 sq. m. land along the Jeddah-Makkah Highway, near the King Khaled National Guard Hospital. The site was the property of the National Guard and was granted to the institute by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, as support to the project that aims to develop the skills of the Saudi youth in automobile maintenance.
The project is a result of the concerted efforts of the Japanese Automobile Distributors in the Kingdom (JADIK) and its partners Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) members of Japan. When completed, the institute will have a total floor area of 24,404 sq. m., consisting of three main buildings — administration, training and dormitory. The consultant responsible for the design and construction management of the project is Zuhair Fayez Partnership, according to its Project Manager R. Sultan Alam.
Both the Saudi and Japanese governments support this project that is aimed at providing the best and practical education for the fast growing Saudi youth population. Supporting the project are the Kingdom’s distributors of Japanese vehicles — Toyota, Mazda, Subaru, Daihatsu, Nissan and Suzuki.
