It seems the fashion nowadays to talk about the number of “future job opportunities” that this or that project will provide for Saudis. Now and then officials make a statement telling us how many jobs will be available thanks to activities under their jurisdiction. The strange thing here is the sheer number of the promised jobs. They are so great that they tend to reflect a dream rather than reality.
To illustrate my point, I recall a case reported in the media where thousands of jobs were promised. The chairman of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) said his organization was working to provide 150,000 new jobs annually. His remarks were made during a meeting with board members of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Imagine that SAGIA alone, through money invested in the market through it, would provide 150,000 new jobs each year. That is 1.5 million jobs in 10 years and three million in 20.
The SAGIA chairman’s words may have implied that foreign investments flowing into the country would create the jobs or at least the majority of them. The chairman was also quoted as saying that Saudi money in future would go into real estate and shares — two areas not known for generating additional investments. The implication seems to be that since Saudi money is not going to provide jobs for Saudis, it is left for foreign capital to do so.
Another marvel, according to a recently published report by a local consultancy and financing firm, the Kingdom’s share of investment in developing countries has dropped sharply over the past 20 years. Our share has decreased from 5.37 percent in 1985 to 1.10 percent in 2002. This means that SAGIA has not helped in attracting additional foreign capital into the Kingdom while, at the same time, our share of foreign investments shrank over the years.
Back now to the good news of the 150,000 new jobs. The SAGIA chairman was not actually talking about new jobs resulting from new investments serving various sectors of the economy, whether service or otherwise. What he actually meant was jobs resulting from investments flowing into the country through SAGIA or as a result of its efforts. The chairman’s estimates don’t seem to include job opportunities provided by the state and our private companies and banks. If this were the case, you can imagine the total number of new jobs expected each year. It would be enormous.
