JEDDAH, 8 April — The government department responsible for Saudization has been making follow-up studies to see if the owners of gold and jewelry shops have implemented the government’s directive to nationalize their employees.
The secretary-general of the Manpower Council has sent a circular to the heads of the regional committees for Saudization requesting that they submit reports on the number of Saudis recruited to date in the gold sector.
The Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry has also demanded that jewelers provide details of the level of Saudization achieved by them in a circular issued on Thursday.
Interior Minister Prince Naif agreed last August to the gradual nationalization of jobs in the sector. According to the minister’s order, 30 percent of the staff should be Saudis after one year, 50 percent in the second year, and 100 percent in the third.
There are about 60,000 workers in the gold and jewelry sector. At present, only 10 percent of them are Saudis.
Meanwhile, the National Commercial Bank, which participated in the recent Career Day organized by King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals, has decided to set up an action team to recruit more Saudis for various departments in the bank. The team will take steps to attract fresh graduates to work in the bank.
According to an inside source, the bank recruited 1,178 Saudi graduates of various subjects during the past five years and conducted a number of training courses for them.
