Ahmed is on a three-day visit to Riyadh. He held talks with Deputy Minister of Labor Abdulwahid Al-Humaid on Monday and his Saudi counterpart Nizar Madani on Sunday.

“Such an agreement will resolve labor issues and look after the interests of both the employer and employee,” Ahmed said.

He also said the discussions with Al-Humaid revealed that Saudi Arabia is interested in setting up large recruitment companies in the Kingdom with offices in India to streamline the recruitment process and to minimize grievances of Indian workers in the Kingdom.

“Most labor problems occur due to misunderstandings between the employer and the employee,” Ahmed said, pointing out that in some cases people recruited for white-collar jobs were sent to work as farm hands.

He announced that the Kingdom is planning to introduce an insurance scheme for Indian workers to look after the interests of employers as well as employees.

Ahmed indicated that regional issues were taken up during the meeting with Madani and India hopes to play a positive role in this.

He lauded the Kingdom's amnesty scheme for overstayers that ended on March 22. “It has benefited several thousands of Indians who made use of this facility offered by the Saudi government,” he stressed.

He also pointed out that the labor department would work out a scheme to repatriate runaway (huroob) cases provided they have no financial liabilities toward their employers or anyone else. There are around 40,000 such cases and 80 percent of them are workers.

Ahmed said the two parties expressed satisfaction at increased bilateral cooperation in the pursuit of strategic partnerships, especially in the political, economic, security, defense and cultural fields following the visit of Indian Premier Manmohan Singh last year.

During Singh’s visit, India and the Kingdom signed the Riyadh Declaration, which paved the way for enhanced bilateral cooperation.

Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad, who was present at the bilateral talks, said the two parties evaluated the progress made after the Riyadh Declaration and discussed future programs.

The minister met with community members at a reception hosted by Ambassador Ahmad on Sunday evening.

On Saturday, the state minister was a guest at a reception by the Kerala Muslim Cultural Center (KMCC) at the Huda International School, where he inaugurated a public library.