RIYADH, 5 April 2005 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd has donated SR40 million to set up a national recruitment center for Saudi job seekers.
“This apex recruitment center will have the mandate to provide employment to Saudi nationals, plan and run training programs and notify employers about the availability of Saudi professionals and skilled workers,” Labor Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi said here yesterday.
Gosaibi said the recruitment center will serve as a national employment provider. “It is major strategic step toward Saudization and a big leap toward the implementation of government policies to provide employment to citizens,” he said. The center will be named after King Fahd.
Gosaibi said the center will cater to the needs of Saudi aspirants for employment and play a facilitating role in the process. The center will also undertake training and vocational guidance projects, which will be tailor-made for Saudi youngsters.
He said that the Human Resource Development Fund will be the government agency tasked with establishing the recruitment center.
The center, he said, will have full-fledged branches in different regions of the country.
“The center will undoubtedly prove successful as the final focal point in ensuring jobs for thousands of Saudis ... who are genuinely seeking jobs,” Gosaibi said.
He, however, did not say when the center would become operational.
The move to set up such a center will affect expatriates working in different sectors, especially construction, industrial, automobile, tourism, retail and banking sectors.
Only a small number of Saudis are working in these sectors, which are traditionally dominated by foreigners.
A study conducted by the Arriyadh Development Authority a few years ago showed that Saudis comprise only 3.3 percent in the construction, 2.2 in the manufacturing, 8.1 percent in trade, 6.8 percent in services and 5.2 percent in the business sectors in Riyadh.
These figures may have improved a little over the years. But by contrast, the share of Saudi workers in the public sector stands at 87 percent.
Job-seeking Saudis have been arguing that the recruitment practices of private sector employers have added to their woes. They face a number of constraints, while looking for jobs in private companies.
The employers have a “natural tendency” for hiring foreign workers, whose qualifications, training, operating flexibility and wage demands more closely match their own requirements and profitability, Saudi job seekers say.
