JEDDAH, 7 June 2005 — A high-level committee has been set up at the Labor Ministry to approve applications for the recruitment of foreign manpower and investigate complaints by companies whose recruitment applications have been rejected.
Labor Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi made the decision to set up the recruitment affairs committee. It will be chaired by the undersecretary for labor affairs and the members will be the undersecretary for planning and development and two assistant undersecretaries.
“The panel will look into recruitment applications arriving at labor offices and will make appropriate decisions after studying actual requirements. It will also listen to complaints of applicants,” Al-Gosaibi said, adding that the committee would begin work in two weeks.
The panel is significant as it will streamline recruitment of experienced and skilled foreign manpower which is required by companies. Some foreign investors have complained that they have been unable to start their projects because of a lack of qualified personnel to operate them.
“We have set up the committee in order to understand the actual requirements of businessmen and allow them to discuss their problems,” Al-Gosaibi said, adding that the committee would consider a company’s compliance with Saudization regulations as well as its contribution to the national economy when studying its applications.
He said the applications for recruitment must be submitted to the labor offices with the necessary papers attached and the committee would approve them after studying the actual labor requirement of the companies.
Although the government has restricted foreign recruitment as part of its campaign to create jobs for unemployed Saudis, Al-Gosaibi said his ministry had no plan to stop recruitment completely.
The ministry had decided to cut down foreign recruitment in order to tackle the imbalance in the job market and create jobs for Saudis, Al-Gosaibi said.
