RIYADH, 12 March 2005 — BAE Systems has announced that the stern security measures taken by the Kingdom, together with the incentives it has offered to its employees, have resulted in a high level of staff retention at its offices in the Kingdom.
“The tough measures adopted by the Saudi government have induced confidence among our Western employees. As a result, we no longer deem it necessary to raise our security status from amber to red which we did a week ago,” BAE spokesman Walid Abu Khalid told Arab News.
“We got intelligence that there was a threat from terrorists. This threat was not specific to BAE, but it was generic. However, the Kingdom’s firm stand against terrorism is having a positive impact on improving the security environment,” he said.
BAE has 5,000 employees in Saudi Arabia, of whom about 40 percent are Westerners. Over the last two years, more than 1,000 Western staffers of BAE have left Saudi Arabia. The company has offered salary increases of nearly $2,000 per month for Westerners who remain in the Kingdom.
BAE has been the leading foreign contractor of Al-Yamamah, the project that has brought more than $40 billion worth of aircraft and ships to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s and 1990s. Over the last five years, Al-Yamamah has turned into a maintenance and training program.
Security concerns among Western expatriates have reportedly caused a drop of about 15 percent in employees. In the case of British expatriates in the Kingdom, the figure stands at an estimated 20,000, down from 25,000 prior to Sept. 11, 2001.
The British media said the security situation in the Gulf and Al-Qaeda’s recent terrorist attacks in the Kingdom were some of the factors that prompted Western expatriates either to return home or relocate in the Gulf.
Asked for his comment, British Ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles told Arab News: “We do not have precise figures for the number of Britons in Saudi Arabia. But we believe that there has been a gradually falling off over the past few years, partly because of terrorism, but also because of Saudization and other market forces. I am proud of the contribution Britons continue to make to the Kingdom and am confident that they will continue to do so for many years to come.”
Saudization has also been cited as one of factors for the progressive replacement of Western expatriates with highly educated Saudis. Such a trend, though in an incipient stage, is noticeable in banks, multinational companies and major Saudi organizations. This has induced rethinking among Western expatriates to look for lucrative jobs in Dubai and elsewhere in the Gulf where their services are still in demand.
At the same time, it has created an acute shortage of native English speakers in international schools.
A spokesman of the British International School in Riyadh offered no comments when asked about the impact of security concerns on the level of enrolment. However, according to The Times of London, the strength of the British and American schools has shrunk by 15-20 percent.
