Much has been said and written about Saudization but despite all the discussion, we have yet to come up with a clear definition of what it means. In the absence of that definition, some say that Saudization means imposing decisions on businessmen. This in turn has led many to fight Saudization and evade implementing it by any possible means. Every trick is used, including bribery, wasta and even moving business abroad to places such as Dubai.
For me, a Saudi is anyone who has stayed in this country for 18 consecutive years and has a profession. Based on this, Saudization is not only an attempt to end unemployment — though this is one of the declared objectives nor is the aim to rid the country of foreign workers who now number more than eight million though this too is an aim.
Saudization is an educational concept that means educating, training and preparing people for work. For more than 50 years, we have been sending our people to school; now it is time to start educating them. In other words, what we must do is save the youth from falling into such notorious neighborhoods as Suwaidi in Riyadh where a British cameraman was murdered and a journalist seriously injured in a recent attack.
We should also work to spare them the fate they will meet if they find themselves confined to slum areas wherever they are in the Kingdom. We should work to turn these young people into useful law-abiding citizens, capable of doing the work they are assigned to do in order to benefit themselves, their country and society.
This is not an impossible task to achieve. We have seen it work successfully in other places. Take Saudi Aramco as one example. It is here that some 40,000 young Saudis have been trained and are now working in technical and office jobs and doing fieldwork in the deepest desert.
Saudi Arabian Airlines is another example. The national carrier adopted the same approach, initiating a series of training programs that have attracted many Saudi young people and prepared them for specialized jobs that require high levels of qualification. The airline offers training programs in financing and information technology for university graduates and inflight services and material management for high school graduates. The programs have enabled the airline to achieve a 97.7 percent Saudization. If Saudi Arabian Airlines can do it, why not others?
