More than 15,000 young Saudi men and women took up jobs in the mobile phone sales and maintenance field after the total Saudization of this vital sector, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Development. The concerned authorities have arranged training facilities for another 45,000 in this sector. The latest figures at the ministry showed that there are a total of 8,045 mobile phone sales and maintenance shops across the Kingdom.
The authorities are giving all the support and encouragement for young Saudis to take up jobs in the mobile sales and training fields.
The Social Development Bank has so far provided financing for 3,267 small projects in this sector. There is a program called ‘Duroob," which was introduced to provide training for jobseekers in this field, and the number of beneficiaries of this program reached 45,000. The program aims at enabling young Saudis to take up jobs in this sector.
The ministry started implementing the Saudization drive in the mobile phone sales and maintenance fields from March 10 last year. By this program all mobile sales and maintenance shops had to replace 50 percent of foreign workers with Saudi men and women within three months, beginning from June 6, 2016 and 100 percent within six months, starting from Sept. 3 last year.
The ministry enforced this decision in cooperation with the ministries of commerce and investment, municipal and rural affairs, and communications and information technology. The ministry implemented Saudization of mobile phone sector as the first phase of its ‘Guided Saudization and Social Development Program," as part of the National Transformation Program (NPT).
The ministry sees this guided program as crucial in reducing unemployment and boosting Saudization. Deputy Minister for Special Programs Ibrahim Al-Shafi said that the program aims at creating 1.2 million jobs for Saudis under NPT and the Kingdom's Vision 2030. Apart from creating jobs in the mobile phone sector, the ministry signed contracts with major companies to hire 2,200 Saudis in the tourism sector, with a plan to increase this figure to 33,000 by the end of 2018, he said adding that a total of 7,500 Saudis joined the health sector as doctors and nurses last year.
