RIYADH, 9 October 2003 — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday urged the public and private sectors to confront the challenges facing the Saudi economy, most importantly the creation of jobs for Saudis.

“Employment of Saudis is an investment in manpower,” the crown prince said in his keynote address to the concluding session of the Riyadh Economic Forum.

The crown prince’s address was read out by Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf.

The crown prince pledged the government’s full support in job creation for Saudis by setting out new regulations and training schemes.

Prince Abdullah said the Supreme Economic Council will look into the forum’s recommendations and take appropriate decisions in the interest of the country and its citizens. He voiced confidence in the private sector’s ability to take up major development projects in Kingdom and abroad.

The Riyadh Economic Forum concluded its sessions with recommendations given to Dr. Al-Assaf.

The recommendations were read by the president of the organizing committee of the forum. The director general of the Saudi Research and Publishing Company, Dr. Abdulaziz Jazzar, also stressed the most important points raised at the three-day event.

The most important of the recommendations reached were:

• The private sector should play a more active role to attract local investment that has gone abroad and to bring in foreign investment.

• The government administration should be restructured and introduce laws more lenient and flexible to attract foreign investment.

• Recognizing the huge efforts of SMBs and calls for ways to promote the success of small and medium businesses.

• Opening more doors to competition in the government sector by private companies and more ways to alleviate the dominance of the government on certain structures.

• Revising the current system so it could work in a more transparent way in public spending.

• Establishing policies which are coherent with the modern age as long as they follow Islamic laws.

• Restructuring the infrastructure in ways which are coherent with Islamic principles, especially those which revolve around attracting more foreign investment in the country.

• Creation of more fields for young Saudis to work in.

• More concentration on scientific majors in the school curriculum such as mathematics, science, and for the encouragement of creative thinking, group work and establishing communication skills.

• Ways to erase any obstacles for women’s involvement in the industrial development of the country.

Dr. Jazzar said that these recommendations would be given to the minister of finance, who will then have the responsibility of giving it personally to the crown prince.

“A team of the highest level should start immediately to put procedures so that these recommendations would be implemented in a period no longer than six months,” said Dr. Jazzar.

Earlier in the day, Saudi women called for action to create job opportunities among women. One of the female participants disputed the figures cited by Dr. Abdul Illah A. Moayed, a member of REF’s organizing committee, who had said that the rate of unemployment among women in the 15-29 age group was 30 percent. She said the estimated figure was as high as 98 percent.

A lecturer from Dar Al-Hekma College of Jeddah said the number of students seeking admission to her college exceeded the number of graduates.

Other questioners from the women’s section wanted action-oriented programs rather than pious intentions of what the government proposes to do to solve the unemployment problem among women.

Another participant said a laboratory in one of the colleges of King Saud University has brand new computers — without any software.

The discussions again brought to the fore discrepancy in official statistics that add to the difficulties of planners. They also spoke about the lack of an agreed definition of unemployment.

Dr. Moayed, speaker of the eighth session, spoke on the incompatibility between the demand and supply cycle. He said this was a major shortcoming of the educational system — its inability to cope with the requirements of the employment market.

Prince Sultan ibn Salman, secretary general of the Supreme Commission on Tourism, later said he was looking for partnership of the private sector in the form of 20,000 partners or investors who could pool their experience and resources as part of a joint effort to promote domestic tourism.

Abdulrahman Al-Maazi, an IT specialist, cited figures which show that 60 percent of the job vacancies in the private sector are for technical graduates.

Saudis, he said, were unfortunately not able to fill the bill, since a majority of them were arts graduates. He called for an overhaul of the educational system, with an emphasis on science and technology courses. He also favored an early switchover to English as a subject of study in order to make Saudis competitive in the job market.

Referring to the employment prospects for Saudis, Dr. Moayed said that according to a survey 80 percent of job opportunities exist in the small and medium enterprises. It was therefore important to tailor courses to the demand of the employment market if the Saudization program is to make headway.

He said the survey revealed that 46 percent of the Saudis looking for jobs in the private sector found the salary structure low compared to that in the public sector. Some 24 percent of the job hunters felt insecure in the private sector. Dr. Moayed called for a program to subsidize the salaries for Saudis as an inducement for them to stay on.

There has been some frustration, however, among delegates over certain presentations at the forum.

Tuesday morning’s session on small and middle sized enterprises took some flak. “The SMEs role in the economy was not given the proper attention it requires,” complained investment adviser Basil M. Al-Ghalayini, CEO of BMG.

“It was wrapped up far too quickly. I came specifically to the forum for the session on SMEs and was deeply disappointed to see it over in just 15 minutes.”

The brevity says much about the attitude of big business, the public sector and chambers of commerce to SMEs, he indicated, in particular the banks. “I represent a number of SMEs,” he told Arab News, “and they are very frustrated at the way the banks look at them.”