The Council of Ministers recently approved two regulations for the smooth functioning of two areas that greatly affect the public. I am speaking of the regulations relating to labor and real estate. The regulations are further proof of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s keenness to do away with many burdensome bureaucratic routines that obstruct the Kingdom’s rapid progress.
Though the labor regulations took more or less a decade to become reality, the real estate ones were achieved in only a few months. The labor regulations apparently required lengthy studies and detailed discussions with both employees and employers all over the Kingdom as they affect eight million workers in the private sector. The new rules regulate relations between employer and employee with legislation guaranteeing each party its right. This is vital to the motivation and success of the private sector, which registered a 6 percent growth rate in the GDP with a 73 percent share in the non-oil sector last year. The rules also take into consideration the improved employment opportunities during the eighth development plan.
The new labor regulations have the additional feature of providing women with equal opportunities for employment while complying with the provisions of the Shariah. Since the regulations do not discriminate against women working as media persons, engineers, lawyers, artists, etc., the Kingdom’s universities and colleges must now make arrangements to facilitate women to study those subjects in their faculties.
The real estate regulations aim at adding more vigor and mobility to the sector by simplifying the procedures related to real estate ownership, title deeds and building permits.
A humble request to the king, who sincerely desires the welfare of the people, can make things easy by doing away with irrelevant bureaucratic bottlenecks.
The education sector, too, needs a shakeup in order to make it fall in line with the directive of the Council of Ministers to cater for the country’s needs. Educational institutions should be aware of the needs of the job market — both present and future — and equip students with the skills to satisfy the needs. Thus, the young people who graduate from our universities and training institutes should be fit and ready to take up any available work. The institutions should make sure that they are offering courses that answer the country’s needs.
The public also hopes to see better performance from the Ministry of Finance. The ministry should ensure that its various subsidiaries are assisting rapid economic development instead of slowing it with cumbersome and outdated bureaucratic procedures.
The Higher Commission for Administrative Reforms, which was set up four years ago, should be given a specific time frame to complete its task. The Commission for Supervision and Investigation reportedly detected some corrupt practices in some government departments which resulted in the loss of half a billion riyals, in addition to 27 administrative, financial and legal violations in other government departments. A foolproof mechanism should be put into place for monitoring the activities of government agencies.
