DAMMAM: Businessmen in the Eastern Province questioned the readiness of the Ministry of Labor to implement the newly-announced Nitaqat System, or Saudization program, during a meeting with Othman Bin Saleh Al-Hugail, Assistant Undersecretary for Development at the Ministry of Labor, on Tuesday in Dammam. The businessmen said the system is not transparent. They urged the ministry to handle all deficiencies in the program which classifies establishments and companies into four categories – red, yellow, green and excellent. The last two groups are for the companies which have fulfilled and surpassed the rate or quota of Saudization set by the ministry while the first and second categories are for companies which failed to achieve the Saudization ceiling. They asked the ministry to provide documented information about the size of unemployment in the Kingdom and the real figure for Saudi jobseekers, rather than leaving business owners in the dark. They said the private sector wants to ensure the localization and nationalization of jobs, but the lack of information about jobs which needed to be filled by nationals cast doubt on the plans and intentions of the ministry. They said the lack of a database about jobs raises a number of questions, especially with the start of the zones program in three months' time. Salih Al-Sayyed, Chairman of the Contracting Committee at the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the Eastern Province, said the contracting companies had asked the labor office in the region one month ago to provide a list or data about jobseekers so that companies can secure jobs for them and therefore move out of the red and yellow zones. He claimed that the office's reply was “very disappointing” because it had only sent a list of seven people. Al-Hugail admitted that the ministry does not have a database of jobseekers, but added that the Human Resources Development Fund and the various chambers of commerce have all this information. He said the “Hafez System” designed by the ministry provides sufficient information about all jobseekers and this data will be accessible during the holy month of Ramadan. “It should be understood that the current stage is devoted to the correction of the status of companies in the yellow and red zones.” He said 80,000 companies had moved from the red to the yellow zone over the past week and urged businessmen to concentrate on the program instead of wasting time criticizing the ministry. The ministry will answer all questions raised by businessmen, he added. He said the launch of the visa guide last week was done on an experimental basis for a fortnight, which gives the ministry time to receive comments from businessmen. The work on the guide took four months. The guide answers all the questions from business owners, he said. He said the Nitaqat Program is flexible and if the ministry sees the importance of reducing the Saudization percentage, the minister will do so. He rejected calls to extend the three-month grace period given to companies to correct their status and stressed this was not negotiable. About setting up a center at the chambers of commerce in cooperation with the Saudi Council of Chambers of Commerce to support small scale establishments, he said negotiations are taking with the council but the matter has not been resolved yet.
