The corporate youth and productive age program is a sustainable development concept that contains interrelated measures, which incorporate all modalities for nation building.

The main modalities for national development are territory, resources and population.

In the Gulf region, the growth of population is less even though the population of this region is mixed with a number of expatriates who work and live here.

In 2013, the Saudi Central Department of Statistics and Information (CDSI) said the Kingdom’s population surpassed 30 million with nearly one-third of them being foreigners (67.6 percent Saudis and 32.4 percent expats at the end of 2013).

According to the CDSI projection, the average annual population growth will remain consistent for the rest of the decade, with the population reaching 31.2 million in 2014, 32.2 million in 2015, 33.2 million in 2016, 34.3 million in 2017, 35.5 million in 2018, 35.5 million in 2019 and 37.2 million in 2020.

The population growth rate of 2.7 percent last year was about half of Dubai’s 5 percent. It also was lower than the average annual population growth during the past 10 years of 3.2 percent.

It is heartening to note that the Kingdom has taken some dynamic initiatives and measures to empower the youth by providing them facilities to enable them to foray into the work markets.

The advantage for Saudi Arabia is that it has sufficient budget from the oil export income. By utilizing the abundance of high income to support empowering effort of their youth and productive ages, it is hoped that the problems of youth can be reduced or even overcome.

Imbalances in technical expertise in society pose some challenges in the region, especially for the younger generation.

In other words, the youth and productive ages as a work force still have to work hard to compete with other expatriates who are being considered more capable and competent human resources to some extent.

In every national program, the demographic phenomena, which may vary among the countries may create social phenomena that must be wisely accommodated by promoting the integrated economic development program.

It is good to see in Saudi Arabia programs like kafala, hafiz, free health facility for the citizens, Nitaqat and others that support the Kingdom in the form of social and technical infrastructure for the enhancement of youth and productive ages.

The Kingdom has pioneered the above kinds of integrated programs for Saudis with a view to attracting their young citizens and others of productive ages to be more participative in various economic sectors and contribute to creating a conducive situation for economic growth through investment and capital.

Thus, the series of activities are more likely to be called a corporate youth and productive ages program (CYPAP).

Many sectors are making efforts to create space for youth and others of productive ages. They include Janadriyah Festival, Trade and Investment Forum and other related activities that are designed for youth and others of productive ages.

The basic principle of the CYPAP has to be making youth and others of productive ages more capable in their society.

It is believed that capable youth and productive age groups will create a positive supply of capital, investment and economic growth.

There will also be a big pull factor of increasing public savings and then reduce the government expenditure and raise its revenue and contribute to the GDP.

The corporate package of policy/program for youth and persons of productive ages seems to be a golden way that need to be maintained with the right policy on how the youth be empowered in every sector of life.

To support this activity, the Kingdom and all local stakeholders such as the chambers of commerce and industry should incorporate a program that put youth as a vital component to safeguard their sustainable development.

This action has laid down the foundation to be more competitive not only in the national level but also in the regional and international level.

Realizing the real situation of Saudi youth and productive ages, there must be some contextual approach that must be taken to empower this segment.

In this regard, the Saudi youth and other related stakeholders must diligently see the potential sector that can be a pillar for supporting the corporate program.

One of the golden sectors is tourism, with more potential sectors being oil and gas industries.

This sector offers many opportunities for other indirect services advantageous to businesses. Even though managing youth and other productive ages in the tourism industry is not as a simple business, there are many aspects that can be used like establishing international or regional cooperation.

According to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) report for 2012-2013, the tourism sector is set to create about 1.3 million jobs by 2015 and about 1.8 million by 2020, offering direct employment opportunities in its sub-sectors and indirect jobs in areas induced by tourism-related activity.

In this context, considering the good commitment of empowering the youth and other productive age groups, a humble proposal is made through the CYPAP.

It is also necessary to establish a center of excellence in Saudi Arabia to deal with the role of youth and other productive age groups for their entrepreneurship experience and performance.

The establishment of a center of excellence is directed to become a source of information among the youth and others of productive ages in Saudi Arabia that may enhance the skills of young and working people based on their competency.

No doubt it will be a competitive factor for all youth in the world when the world asks them to perform.

— Moehammad Amar Ma’ruf is the counselor for economic affairs at the Consulate General of Indonesia in Jeddah.