JEDDAH, 27 December 2005 — With the recent presentation of the Ministry of Labor’s ambitious strategy aiming at controlling unemployment, ministry officials are becoming increasingly aware of other factors and ramifications for the success or failure of this strategy.
The strategy sets up the implementation of a number of policies and mechanisms in the short, medium and long-term so that in 25 years, full employment of the national work force will be achieved and its standards of production raised. The strategy takes into consideration some of our society’s economic and social aspects and it addresses some key issues for the success of any employment drive — including changing the education system and curriculum in order to meet job market demands as well as improving training and labor laws and regulations. From the comments and criticisms heard at presentation of the strategy, however, it was clear that there are other basic problems that must also be addressed.
The base of the strategy is to be implemented during the next two years by a number of specific policies and mechanisms. During this short-term employment strategy period, there are ten policies with specific mechanisms for each. The policies are: Employing an equal number of job applicants as job entrants to the job market, expanding the employment of women, absorbing into the job market those under 22-years of age, supporting family-production programs, encouraging the establishment of student guidance offices at educational institutions, encouraging establishments to increase Saudization, coordinating between educational institutions and the job market, developing labor information systems and improving the services of the labor offices. And this is all to be done within the first two years.
Dr. Nadia Baeshen, director of Khadija bint Khowailid Center, pointed out that in order to implement this ambitious strategy, the ministry itself will need a huge number of well-qualified and trained employees who are able to implement the strategy and that, at the moment, the ministry lacks these people. As for increasing the employment of women, she mentioned the Ministry of Commerce’s despotic regulations and its employees who discourage women’s investments.
More importantly, she pointed to restrictions on permitting women to work in the private sector which are enforced by labor offices and which prevent businessmen from hiring women. Others present at the presentation pointed to the need for large amounts of money for investing in training. Some businessmen spoke of the lack of reliable statistics and information upon which to base this strategy while others mentioned the widespread corruption and the absence of accountability when it comes to breaking laws and regulations. Still others called for studying the reasons why businessmen refuse to hire Saudis and why Saudis refuse to take certain blue-collar jobs. They felt that such things should be thoroughly investigated before attempting to enforce Saudization.
Moving on to the medium-term employment strategy period, this includes increasing the percentage of the Saudi work force in the labor market, employing qualified Saudis, supporting and funding small establishments, improving the work force’s productivity, raising the standard of job market regulations, using fees on foreign labor to develop national human resources, raising the standard of human resource development institutions, encouraging economic development outside the main cities, increasing the supply of qualified laborers and encouraging cooperative training programs at the job site. At this point, many spoke on the restrictions on job transferring, job categorizations and the lack of a minimum wage.
Some talked about the need for trust between the private sector and the government and between government institutions themselves where there should be coordination and cooperation rather than contradictory regulations. With regards to funding small establishments, the banks must play a role, they suggested. Regarding economic development outside the big cities, they suggested establishing industrial cities but that would require taking into consideration the local culture and attitudes. There also should be labor offices in remote villages too and in all universities.
Nashwa Taher, one of the women newly elected to the JCCI board of directors, said that in order for women to work in remote areas, there should be a better system for placing them in jobs closer to their homes and also a reliable and safe transportation system. Others complained about new restrictions on issuing visas for trainers and the ongoing problems of visa job titles in hiring foreigners.
In the final long-term strategy phase there is a target of achieving full employment of Saudis, developing and organizing of labor relations, raising production levels to those of OECD, balancing human resource development institutions with providing job opportunities, encouraging continued education and guaranteeing vacations. Businessman Hussein Abu Dawood made a very pertinent point by saying that for a system to work, there must be clear ways of implementing it. “There has to be ministry follow-up of all public and private institutions to see if they are implementing the regulations.”