RIYADH, 21 July 2004 — The Kingdom has signed an agreement with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) for developing an industrial strategy and future vision for the industrial sector until 2020.
Deputy Minister for Industrial Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Saleh Al-Husseini said the grand strategy aims at diversification of the industrial base, improvement of the quality and standard of industrial products, promotion of industrial investment, and the strengthening of industrial technology.
As part of its long-term vision, he said, the Kingdom is formulating a comprehensive strategy under which all government agencies and departments will be merged into a dedicated organization to implement its industrialization program for the period up to 2020.
The agencies involved will include the ministries of commerce and industry; economy and planning; oil and mineral resources; finance; Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu; King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology; Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA); General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOTEVOT); Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO); Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) and the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technological Regions.
The deputy minister announced that a comprehensive industrial strategy is nearing completion. The strategy will make the industrial sector the first beneficiary of e-government services. “This will also help us in streamlining the procedures for industrial investors, in addition to improving quality, boosting productivity, competitiveness, and promoting industrial integration,” he added.
According to the latest reports of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and the Ministry of Labor, the total investment in the industrial sector in the Kingdom stood at SR126.095 billion in 2002. Of this, investment in the oil sector amounted to SR14.240 billion, while that in the non-oil sector was SR94.347 billion. Government expenditure on employees was SR17.508 billion.
Concerning manpower, the total number of employees was 5.91 million, of which government employees totaled 1.213 million with the rest distributed in agricultural, education, petroleum, construction, manufacturing, health care and wholesale market sectors.
The breakdown of invested capital showed that the non-oil sector accounted for 85.9 percent of the amount, while it contributed about 10 percent to the GDP. This highlights the need for making the non-oil sector more productive in terms of its manpower employment potential.
Another issue before the planners is that of improving the quality of national products. As the recent quality control conference pointed out, monitoring of quality control is thinly stretched. Typical of this dilemma is observed in Riyadh, where there are only about 15 inspectors to cover the whole Riyadh area of about five million.
“This leaves gaping holes and numerous opportunities for enterprising but illegal operators to import all sorts of potentially dangerous materials,” said Dr. Khaled Y. Al-Khalaf, director general of Saudi Arabian Standards Organization, at the conference.
Industrial analysts argue that some of the major issues facing the national industry are how to give a qualitative edge to Saudi products and make them internationally competitive. To this end, they have suggested developing the national products to the level of global brands.
