RIYADH - Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation said here yesterday that Saudi women are an essential part of the country's development in the technical-education sector.
"The government of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (King Abdullah) has not and will not exempt Saudi women in our development plans all over the Kingdom," he said at the inauguration of the 4th Saudi Technical Symposium and Exhibition. "The government has provided this education for Saudi women and has made it accessible according to our Islamic religion and our culture."
He said the aim of providing education for women in the technical field was to "provide job opportunities for female graduates."
He also said the government welcomed the participation of several global technical institutes in the country's vast development in the technical field.
"This cooperation helps us to exchange technical expertise and improve the performance of our institutions according to our national plan for development," he said.
Sultan said that since the Kingdom joined the World Trade Organization last year, it now faces a new challenge to compete with other institutions worldwide.
"For that reason, the government considers the quality of technical education important," he added. He stressed the importance of preparing qualified Saudi expertise "to compete with its counterparts worldwide".
Governor of Riyadh Prince Salman, Governor of the General Organization for Technical Education and Vocational Training (GOVET) Ali Al-Ghafees, as well as the Minister of Labor Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, also attended the event.
Speaking on behalf of the participating companies, Damian Turner, managing director of BAE Systems, said that BAE's cooperation with the Saudi government was to "estimate the skills for Saudi nationals".
He also said that the company would "provide direct support to the Kingdom's technical industrialization programs."
He mentioned that by training Saudis in the technical education sector, as many as 10,000 jobs would be waiting for them upon graduation.
BAE Systems, he said, intends to train Saudis in air traffic control programs, as well as provide training for Saudis in industrial training colleges.
"We cannot have dreamt of accomplishing these things without the support of the Saudi government," he said.
Al-Gosaibi said the fact that the crown prince inaugurated the event was to illustrate the government's caring for the welfare of Saudi youth - both men and women - to receive proper training that would enable them to earn honest jobs.
"The government, as mentioned many times before, aims to lowering the unemployment rate in our country so it can become something of the past within a few years," he said.
A two-day seminar that discussed several aspects related to technical education took place yesterday. In addition to the seminar, the exhibition displayed several products from 21 participating companies from all over the world.
