One of the funniest employment ads that I ever read in a local newspaper had the caption “For Saudis Only”. The ad was for a job in a big well-known company and the requirements are that the applicant should be fluent in English, be computer-literate and have a transferable iqama. Yes, that’s right — a transferable iqama. You read it right. Another equally interesting advertisement was put there by a local businessman. He bought a whole page to offer his condolences to someone but also managed to get in a small advertisement for his own company.
Among the funniest employment requirements that I ever saw in my life was placed by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the chamber’s general secretary. I only wish that we had fifty Saudis who had half the qualifications the chamber was seeking.
A sad story which implicates the pointless bureaucracy which hinders our development has to do with a foreign investor. The investor went to the appropriate government department to follow up on his earlier application for establishing a company in the Kingdom in which he would have a 50 percent share. A junior employee in the department refused to listen to the investor since his instructions are that only Saudis can follow up official applications in government department.
Once I was talking to the secretary general of our General Investment Authority, who is very eager to attract investment from around the world. I said to him that there were plenty of countries which also wanted foreign investment and that those countries made things easy for the investor. I suggested we try to follow some of their examples. I am afraid that the examples I’ve given above demonstrate the existing procedures in our government departments.
Arab News Features 18 December 2002