JEDDAH, 23 October 2004 — A consultative council, comprising prominent businessmen and chaired by Labor Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, will be formed shortly to advise the minister on labor issues, especially employment and recruitment in the private sector.
Gosaibi has already issued a ministerial decision to form the panel, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday. “The advisory council will contribute immensely to solving many problems facing the labor sector,” the agency said.
The formation of the panel comes after many businessmen complained that some of the decisions taken by the Labor Ministry as part of its Saudization drive were adversely affecting their businesses and causing them heavy losses.
“The new body will be a conduit to take the ministry’s views to the private sector and revert with the latter’s response, opinions and worries,” an official statement said. It will also review the problems facing employment of Saudis in the private sector and find practical solutions, it added.
The advisory council including 11 members from businessmen and workers will discuss the issues pertaining to foreign work force, such as illicit trade in visas, proxy business, as well as ways to improve services of labor offices across the country.
Gosaibi recently announced the government’s plan to cut the number of foreign workers by not less than 100,000 every year. He said the ministry had adopted a three-pronged strategy to solve the country’s growing unemployment problem — by rationalizing recruitment, training Saudis and increasing the cost of recruiting foreign manpower.
Gosaibi emphasized the need to solve the problem caused by the inflow of cheap foreign manpower. “This can be done only by increasing the cost of recruitment,” he said and hinted at plans to impose a new charge on recruitment.
The Labor Ministry slapped a ban on transfer of visas earlier this year as part of its efforts to cut back on foreign labor and create more jobs for Saudis. Experts had suggested that a ban on visa transfers would stop illicit trading in visas.
Al-Jazirah daily quoted 10 leading contractors as saying that the Labor Ministry restrictions would make contractors bankrupt.
