RIYADH, 16 April — The Council of Ministers yesterday decided to employ Saudis in place of expatriate workers holding government jobs, Information Minister Dr. Fouad Al-Farsy said yesterday.
Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency after the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jeddah, he said the meeting also decided to implement the measures related to the status of foreign contract workers at government departments.
“The Cabinet approved the proposals of a study on Saudization of government jobs in general,” Farsy said.
He said expatriate teaching staff in universities, including lecturers, will be shifted to other jobs and replaced by Saudis.
The Cabinet also urged the Higher Education Ministry to create new jobs of teaching assistants to employ Saudis and send the new employees abroad to continue their higher studies.
Meanwhile, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Dr. Ali Al-Namlah said his ministry is studying the viability of increasing the list of trades reserved for Saudis.
There are presently 34 trades which are reserved exclusively for Saudis as part of the country’s plan to replace expatriate workers with national workers.
The new steps to contain the growing unemployment rate includes stricter implementation of a ministry order to companies and establishments with 20 or more employees to hire Saudis at the rate of 5 percent annually.
The new regulations for Saudization are planned, executed and supervised by the Manpower Council headed by Interior Minister Prince Naif. The council plans to launch new inspection campaigns to make sure that all the Saudization regulations are implemented to the letter.
The inspection teams of the council will also strictly implement the regulation that foreign workers under 40 years of age are not working in shops which sell gold or female clothes. This regulation was introduced some time ago, though not strictly implemented.
The Kingdom has been striving to curb growing unemployment among the young for several years.
Saudi unemployment in a country where millions of foreigners are recruited for work is largely the result of the reluctance of the private sector to hire locals at reasonable wages.
However, the government has brought in laws to force the gradual replacement of expatriate workers with the locals.
Though no precise data is available, the unemployment rate in the Kingdom is estimated at 10 to 15 percent.
Saudis occupy 40 percent of the jobs, with 668,5000 jobs in the public sector at the end of 1999 while it was 520,000 in 1990.
