INTERVIEW-Saudi Arabia sees no end to expat labour dependence
09 Nov 2008 14:42:07 GMT Source: Reuters
By Andrew Hammond RIYADH, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia wants to create a white-collar workforce of Saudis in services and professions but does not foresee ending its dependence upon cheap foreign labour, a government official said on Sunday. Deputy Labour Minister Abdulwahed Al-Humaid said between 8 and 9 million of Saudi Arabia's population of over 25 million were temporary foreign residents who have effectively become part of the economic fabric of the vast desert nation. "Our goal is not to employ Saudis in any employment but to give them the right job, to give them skills. Our goal is to train Saudis in jobs where they add value to the economy," he said in an interview. "I dream of a society where you have Saudis doing high-quality jobs. We need engineers, doctors, technicians. If we have to bring somebody from outside I prefer that it's for simple jobs," he told Reuters. The labour ministry is trying to force businesses to employ more Saudis in a process known as "Saudisation", three decades after the world's biggest oil exporter invited Asian labour en masse to develop the country during the 1970s oil boom. Having been a pioneer in use of migrant labour, Saudi Arabia has many experts and policymakers who rue the day they handed over overnight construction of a modern nation to outsiders because of the culture of dependence it has produced. Expatriates transfer 60 billion riyals ($16 billion) a year out of Saudi Arabia to their home countries, Humaid said, second to the size of remittances from the United States. GOVERNMENT JOBS FAVOURITE The government is worried about producing jobs for its youth and fears they could be tempted by radical Islamist ideology. Yet ordinary Saudis are reluctant to work in the private sector, preferring government jobs. Humaid said the state bureaucracy was now 100 percent "Saudised", at nearly 900,000, as well as some areas of the retail industry. Used to foreign labour for so long, even poor Saudis do not engage in jobs such as some factory work, street cleaning or even construction. Some experts say they only find the work unthinkable because the distorted labour market dating back a generation has attuned them to thinking that way. The ministry sets quotas for businesses and grants them certain numbers of visas to hire from abroad. Employers prefer blue-collar workers from poor countries because they are cheaper and white-collar foreigners because Saudis lack skills. State-oil firm Aramco is setting up the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) to produce Saudi scientists and engineers and four "economic cities" aim to provide white-collar jobs and training for Saudis. Humaid pointed to the impoverished southern region of Jazan, location of one of the economic city projects. "They are taking these poor people and sending them to Malaysia, for example, as in the case of Jazan and by time the city is finished you will have people who are college graduates (who will live and work there)," he said. "This is the type of job we prefer, that our people work as engineers," he added. The cities are being built by imported foreign labour. (Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Lawyers surrouded the car of Pakistan's deposed chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry (in car) as he leaves his residence in Islamabad November 8, 2008, to address lawyers in Sialkot. Former President Pervez ...
