DHAHRAN, 9 June — The German Businessmen’s Association was pleased to welcome Dr. Mohammed Al-Sahlawi, director-general, Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), to their monthly meeting held at the Dhahran International Hotel. Dr. Al-Sahlawi gave an informative presentation on the activities of HRDF and the fund’s impact on the nation’s Saudization effort.
Dr. Al-Sahlawi pointed out that Germany is one of the Kingdom’s oldest trading partners. Additionally, after World War II, Germany’s relationship with the Saudi business community in both the industrial sector and in the area of vocational training became particularly strong. This relationship will be reinforced by the participation of Prince Abdullah ibn Faisal ibn Turki, governor, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (GIA) at a major conference on German investment in the Kingdom scheduled for the end of June in Germany.
“Globalization has brought diversification to the Kingdom,” said Dr. Al-Sahlawi. “We believe Germany will be a major player in our push to broaden our industrial base. The increasing numbers of government and business visitors to Saudi Arabia from Germany are indicative of the intense activity that has already been launched in this area.”
Dr. Al-Sahlawi is hoping that German companies will be eager to employ Saudis both in their new ventures and those already operational in the Kingdom. He explained that HRDF was set up not only to encourage Saudization, but also to help find solutions for the many practical problems associated with Saudi employment in the private sector.
According to Dr. Al-Sahlawi there are three primary reasons why the private sector has not enthusiastically welcomed Saudization. First, many Saudis still lack proper training and skills. Next, Saudis appear, at least in the short term, to be more expensive than foreign workers in some areas and levels of employment. Last, Saudis themselves have resisted working in certain fields and many do not prefer to work for the private sector.
How can HRDF assist in promoting Saudization in the private sector?
HRDF provides grants for qualifying, training and recruiting national manpower in the private sector. HRDF can directly contribute to the cost of qualifying and training national manpower for private sector jobs. After workers are trained and qualified, HRDF can subsidize a percentage of the salaries of those skilled workers recruited by the private sector. In addition to its direct activities focused on Saudization, HRDF also supports field programs, projects, research and studies aimed at replacing foreign labor in the Saudi market. Funding for all these activities comes from the SR150, which is added to the fund by every work permit issuance and iqama renewal. HRDF’s programs are applicable for all Saudis — men and women.
“The activities of HRDF are clearly measurable,” commented Dr. Al-Sahlawi. “HRDF bears 75 percent of the employee’s salary and allowances during the on-the-job training period, which is not to exceed two years and SR1,500 monthly, while the recruiting organization bears the cost of training. Plus, HRDF bears, for one year, 50 percent of the employee’s salary after being on the job trained where the support does not exceed SR2,000 monthly.
“In another aspect of employment, HRDF will bear for two years, 50 percent of a newly-recruited employee’s salary, who has been trained by one of the training centers recognized by HRDF, and who has not been employed before, where HRDF’s support does not exceed SR2,000 monthly per employee.”
These incentives are encouraging private sector employers to sign up for the program. From the program’s start in February 2002 through June, about 3,500 Saudis have been enrolled. By December 2002, the goal is to have 10,000 Saudis, either in training or recruited under the program.
Thus far, to jump start the program HRDF has been working mostly with larger private sector enterprises because these groups are more organized, some already have effective training programs and in the long-term it is thought that large companies will have more employment opportunities available.
“It is important to note though that HRDF will welcome into the program private sector companies of any size that are genuinely interested in supporting the move toward Saudization,” emphasize Dr. Al-Sahlawi. “We do not have offices outside Riyadh. Instead we are using chambers of commerce to disseminate our program details in order to keep our overhead down. I would also urge companies to visit our web site, hrdf.org.sa for more information.”
