Al-Riyadh THERE is a new move to reduce dependence on government for employment and I believe that this is the correct approach to have a brighter future. The government currently employs more than 50 percent of the country's workforce and this has been wrongly considered as a sign of economic growth. Efforts should have been made to create job opportunities for Saudis in the private sector either employing them in private companies or encouraging them to start independent enterprises. One of the solutions for saturation of employment in the public sector is to promote private enterprises. I would like to make this proposal giving two options. First is to provide government workers leave without salary in response to their requests to work in the private sector, without any adverse effect on their work performance and without violating public interests. This will give such government employees an opportunity to work in the private sector and if they become successful in the new field they can resign from government jobs if they wish. This will help fight unemployment and develop profitable enterprises. Such independent enterprises would encourage employees to work hard and become successful. The government should make arrangements to provide them with soft loans and technical support to make their ventures successful and profitable. This will reduce the government's financial burden as the state need not pay salaries to employees who have shifted to private business activities. It will also have many other benefits. The second option is that such government employees continue their work in public departments and work for the private sector in the evening on the basis of certain conditions. Such employees should be asked to pay a fee to the state for working in the private sector. Instead of giving soft loans, the authorities can charge a nominal fee for giving finance and encourage them to work in the private sector seriously and leave the government job at a later stage. All these shall be done considering the desire of employees and should not be imposed upon them. I believe that opening job opportunities for government employees in the private sector is an important strategy and for this purpose they should be sanctioned a two-year minimum leave. This system will enable the government to save a lot of money in salaries. The state should give such workers incentives by offering them soft loans to start their private enterprises and the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority should support them by conducting feasibility studies and providing technical assistance and other facilities. Government departments including municipalities should help these workers get various licenses. This open support would encourage them to leave their present government jobs after making good money from own businesses. Government employees should not be forced to work in the private sector. At the same time, these workers will find a number of incentives such as long vacation, loan and consultancy to work in the private sector, instead of supporting illegal cover-up businesses of expatriates. I believe that this system would surely contribute to getting rid of cover-up (tasattur) businesses from the country and encourage citizens to open new private businesses and enterprises, which have been hitherto occupied by expatriates. This will lead to circulation of capital within the Kingdom without being taken away by expatriates who run various tasattur or cover-up businesses.
