The number of female employees in major industrial cities has reached 5,480 distributed across 132 factories.

They now make up 4.7 percent of the total industrial work force, said Sami Al-Husseini, director of marketing and public relations at the Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon).

Al-Husseini said the total number of factories that hire women in Jeddahs First Industrial City has reached 2,120, which is 5.8 percent of the total number of productive factories in the city. In Riyadh, it is 2,119 women, making up 4.4 percent of the total industrial work force. The number of working women in Dammam second industrial city reached 933, totalling 5.9 percent of workers distributed over 34 factories. In Al-Ahsa, nine factories collectively employ 141 women, while in Makkah four factories employ 100 women.

Industries varied in attracting females due to their different characteristics and suitability. Food stuff factories attracted 52 percent of the total number of women in Modon, while electrical appliance factories come second in terms of attracting female employees with 7.81 percent.

This was followed by pharmaceutical factories with 7.28 percent, chemical products with 7.08 percent, textiles with 5.46 percent, beverages with 3.96 percent, plastics and rubber with 3.91 percent, nonferrous metals with 3.30 percent, paper products with 3.18 percent.

Al-Husseini said this industrial leap conforms to the Kingdoms plans to benefit from the expertise and abilities of Saudi women, especially in the industrial sector. To this end, the Council of Ministers has issued a directive related to land and provinces to prepare them to establish industrial projects where women can work, and to assign the Modon permission to establish industrial cities that are suitable for female employment in the Kingdoms various provinces.

In 2013, Modon launched first industrial city suitable for female work in the Kingdom. The city is located to the south of Al-Hufuf city next to the airport, on a space of 500,000 sq. meters. In February 2014 the cornerstone was laid to develop the second industrial city that suits womens work (Yanbu Modon Oawis) in Madinah with a space of 500,000 sq. meters, to the north of Yanbu airport and 10 km from the center of the city.

Al-Husseini said Modon established the Modon Oases according to international specifications and special designs that take care of womens privacy to attract the largest number of female industrial projects, which are located next to urban areas, and to facilitate their involvement in the workforce, in addition to being modern, clean and environmentally friendly.

The involvement of women in the industrial workforce is the topic of the first session of the Industrial Opportunities Forum which will be launched this week. A number of experts will gather to study the involvement of women in industrial investment, with the participation of a number of major companies and funding and consulting bodies, and a number of investors and economists.

The forum (in its fourth iteration) aims to achieve a number of goals such as shedding light on the service and incentive systems, and facilities offered by the state and funding institutions for industrial projects, in addition to presenting industrial opportunities that are based on the comprehensive needs of emerging projects. The forum aims to introduce business pioneers to the achievements of small and medium industrial establishments, and introduce them to the services of funding institutions, financial and consulting facilitation.