JEDDAH: Adel Fakieh, Minister of Labor, has suggested that moves are being considered to allow foreigners to work in the Kingdom for a maximum of only six years. Al-Hayat Arabic daily reported Monday Fakieh as saying that “expatriate workers who have spent six years in the Kingdom will not have their contracts renewed”. The minister reportedly made the statement during a meeting with the business community at Jeddah's Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saturday. Al-Watan newspaper reported Fakieh as saying, however, that the measure would come into effect “soon”, and that it was part of a package of 10 programs the ministry is working on to promote Saudization – or “nationalization” in the ministry's new terminology. Fakieh's comments Saturday, according to Al-Hayat, were part of an address that reiterated the ministry's commitment to the recently announced system of judging companies' compliance with nationalization and taking punitive measures for failures. Fakieh said there is “no going back” on the program. “The program aims to encourage firms and organizations to nationalize jobs,” he said. “The current situation calls for the creation of solid cooperation between the government and the private sector in addressing the problem of unemployment given the hundreds of thousands of men and women looking for work.” He said that the most recent statistics showed that there were half-a-million unemployed Saudis in the country. “At the same time, there are eight million foreign workers, six million of them working in the private sector,” he said. “Ninety percent of persons working in the private sector are non-Saudis.” Fakieh said that compliance with the new program, which is expected to be introduced within two weeks, would “help put an end to 99 percent of black market visas”. – Saudi Gazette MINISTRY OF LABOR CLARIFIES RIYADH: The Ministry of Labor clarified Monday that the six-year rule would be applicable only to organizations assigned “yellow light” as envisaged in the recently announced incentive program for the Saudization of jobs in the private sector. The ministry said that work permits of expatriates employed with companies assigned the “red light” will not be renewed at all irrespective of the duration of their stay in the Kingdom. A ministry spokesman said that organizations that achieve higher ratings in the new system will not face any problem in the renewal of work permits of foreign workers. He said that this new rule based on color coding is not applicable to domestic workers irrespective of the duration of their stay.
