A bright future awaits the fashion design industry in the Kingdom as authorities discuss plans to develop this field.

Umaymah Azzouz, chief of the Fashion Designers Committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), told Arab News that this sector could help employ more women. She explained that the fashion industry could open 70,000 job opportunities for Saudi women in the next five years. She added that the fashion fields of design, sewing workshops and technical manpower can contribute to bringing down the unemployment rate among women.

Statistics indicate that the number of female workshops in the Kingdom reached more than 70,000. “If each workshop hired one trained national or replaced a foreigner with a citizen we will reach the desired number,” Azzouz said.

She added that experts in the Saudi labor market estimated that this sector will help to cut the unemployment rate among women by 18 percent. Figures show that 396,700 women were unemployed in the first half of 2014. This comprises 60 percent of the Kingdom’s overall level of unemployment in the same period that reached 657,000, according to Labor Ministry estimates.

With 46,000 women employed in the private sector, Azzouz encouraged employers to employ more women. She explained that the industrial sector in particular, has the ability to absorb women labor workers in many jobs, “provided that they work in an environment that guarantees them privacy and respects their religious and social values,” she said.

There is growing need to support women to launch their own projects, including facilitating the bureaucratic procedures, Azzouz said. She added that many women aspire to work in the fashion design field but need institutional support and encouragement. She said that relevant authorities need to strongly support this sector including the Saudi Credit and Savings Bank, “Kafala” program of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund to finance small and medium enterprises, the Human Resources Development Fund, the Centennial Fund, the Social Charity Fund, centers and committees for the development of small and medium enterprises in the Saudi Chambers of Commerce, the boards of chambers of commerce, in addition to commercial banks, and special programs.

In another note, Azzouz said she was pleased to represent the Kingdom in the second Gulf businesswomen forum, which was held last Thursday and Friday in Bahrain. The forum, entitled "Bridges of Cooperation and Openness," was held under the supervision of the General Secretariat of the Federation of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Chambers.

The forum aimed to discuss the economic challenges facing Gulf businesswomen in addition to upgrading their economic efficiency amid the sweeping changes in the Arab world and the region. Also, one of the forum’s goals was to develop connections and intensify mutual understanding among business owners, and to highlight the Gulf entrepreneurs as well as discover competencies.