JEDDAH, 1 September 2003 — A new cooperative effort by a group of private companies and the Malaysian government was announced at a press conference at the Jeddah Hilton here yesterday. The aim is to establish and implement a human resource development program in Saudi Arabia.

Gulf Link, a professional skills development institution, is the organizer and its main sponsors are Al-Rabea Dairy Company and Unilever. With cooperation from a consortium of Malaysian companies that were involved in the country’s industrial development, the program will benefit from the Malaysian experience in a ways suitable to the Saudi environment.

The program will be launched next week in Jeddah and Riyadh through a series of stages starting with an initiation program for training the trainers in the workplace on new and practical skills’ development methods.

The second stage will be training 50 to 80 trainers a year who will be licensed as professional trainers. The next step will be a strategy of merging small and medium specialized institutions to absorb the expansion in the number of trainees.

The final stage will be customer relationship management focusing on building long-term relationships with trainees who will be encouraged to continue their skills development.

The press conference was chaired by Ameen Al-Rayes, president of Gulf Link, who spoke about the gap between the education system and the demands of the job market.

“The problem is not in finding a job because there are many jobs; the problem is in finding the right person to fill the job,” said Al-Rayes.

Malaysia earlier implemented a human resource development program called ASK (Attitude, Skills, Knowledge). Based on its success, the Saudi program will integrate and develop these three areas in each trainee; the cooperation of the private sector is vital to the program’s success.

“A big problem faced by Saudi businessmen who employ Saudis is the high turnover so this is a long-term strategy of rehabilitating young Saudi men and women rather than simply a training program,” said Al-Rayes.

Malaysia’s Commercial Consul General Mohtar Abdullah spoke about Malaysia’s experience in transforming itself from an agricultural country to an industrial and commercial one.

Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Hazaa, the secretary-general of the national project for training and employment in the Makkah region, spoke of the government’s interest in the issue and its support for every effort to solve the problem of unemployment.

Among other speakers were Al-Sharif Monther Al-Harithy, general director of Al-Rabea, who pointed out the importance of changing the definition of a qualified employee for entering the job market.

From Unilever, Fahd Al-Gain spoke on the importance of developing required job skills such as English and computing.