JEDDAH, 11 October 2006 - Despite repeated attempts and declarations by the relevant ministries and organizations to open more employment and investment opportunities for women, some of the core problems remain. Whether it is the wakeel (male representative), recruitment, licensing or transportation, businesswomen are frustrated with the obstacles and contradictions in regulations that hamper their progress.
The Khadija Bint Khowailid Center for Businesswomen at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a meeting yesterday with a group of businesswomen to hear from them in order to transmit their complaints and opinions to the relevant ministers. Dr. Basma Al-Omair, the director of the center, said that she and JCCI board-of-directors members, Lama Al-Sulaiman and Nashwa Taher, have been meeting with the minister of labor, the mayor of Jeddah, the governor of SAGIA (Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority) and GOTEVOT (General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training) and other officials. They reviewed with them the regulations, some of the problems with these regulations and made recommendations for fixing them. The center has made many changes during the past months including creating a new department called “government files” for linking and following up on with all ministries and organizations. “We believe that women will not progress until we remove the obstacles and empower women,” said Dr. Al-Omair.
The businesswomen owners of training centers had a number of grievances with the Ministry of Labor over finding qualified Saudi women to take positions from foreigners, the problem of issuing visas and transferring sponsorship, which have been stopped. Ferial Idrees, director of the women’s recruitment office, suggested that they train their own graduates to take over the foreign trainers jobs.
Furthermore, she pointed out that the offspring of a Saudi mother and a non-Saudi father as well as non-Saudi wives of Saudi men are considered Saudi making them a viable option for recruitment. She also said that the Passport Department is opening offices at the Labor Recruitment Offices to ease the process of getting visas and transferring sponsorship, which still remains a problem for all businesses. “We also can help in facilitating the foreign recruitment application and procedure as long as you are registered with the Labor Office,” she said. However, Raja Moumina, owner of Future Training Center, said that many of the foreign trainers hired from within the country work part-time because of the nature of the training programs, and that makes them working illegally. “The system should be changed so that we can contract internally according to our needs as long as the person is in the country legally and has an iqama,” said Moumina.
Businesswoman Aiysha Nattu suggested that her colleagues take advantage of the programs offered by the Human Resources Development Fund and the National System for Joint Training Program that financially support training programs in private institutions that lead to jobs. At the same time, trainees should know that a job is not guaranteed unless they prove themselves.
However, this financial support brought up the issue of delays in it being paid to the institutions for months causing major financial backlog. “The ministry should conduct a study on the institutions that are strong and capable of delivering and support them financially so that they continue to develop. Also, when any public or private agency wish to contract with a training center for a particular job description they should consult with the training centers and set reasonable criteria and programs,” said Moumina. The businesswomen also brought up the issue of transportation, which is a major problem for both trainees and employees.
Training centers are often asked to provide a variety of training programs in line with job market demands rather than the usual English and computer courses, but when these centers tried to offer marketing, sales, interior design, they were told by GOTEVOT, which issues the license for the training programs, that it does not yet issue licenses for other programs. Those centers that went ahead and offered other programs found that the diplomas they awarded were not locally acceptable but were valid internationally.
Many of these programs have been shut down by GOTEVOT. Problems with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry revolve around registering a business name in one city which does not guarantee that it will not be used in another city because there is no link between cities. The problem of the wakeel has supposedly been eliminated but it turns out to have simply been refigured. “The wakeel is eliminated in businesses that are strictly women-related, otherwise a male manager has to be hired but he needs to have power of attorney to do his job,” explained Taher. Another major problem is that it is still not possible to have a license for a hair salon or health club, they have to be licensed under the name “tailoring store.”
Furthermore, women are not allowed to have register more than one main and one sub-business in a city. Women’s problems with the municipality also include their missing out on investment opportunities. “There is no women’s section or database of businesswomen with the municipality so that we can be called on like men to participate in investment projects and tenders,” said Nattu.
