Nadia Al-Fawaz Saudi Gazette ABHA – The first ever career fair will open in Abha on Sunday night with the support of Asir Emir Prince Faisal Bin Khaled. Muhammad Al-Isa, assistant undersecretary at the governorate, will inaugurate the event at Abha Palace Hotel immediately after the Maghreb prayer. The fair, one of the biggest and most important events of its kind being organized by the Abha Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) in 2013, aims to find suitable placements and training opportunities for Saudi jobseekers. In a press statement Saturday, the ACCI said 30 national companies and establishments will participate in the fair and jobseekers will be briefed on the nature of work and opportunities in these companies. Major companies featured at the fair are the Saudi Electricity Company, Fakeeh Poultry Farms, Riyadh Institute of Technology, Abha Private Hospital, Herfi Foods, Abdulhadi Al-Qahtani and Sons Company, Al-Yusr Installments Company, Life Learning Center, Fann Al-Funoon for Audio Production, and Ridha for Food Services. Other participants include the Human Resources Development Fund, the Saudi Commission for Chartered Accountants, Al-Wafi International Integrated Foods Company, Prince Sultan Tourism and Management College in Abha, and Electronics Marketing World, among others. The ACCI statement said participating companies and establishments are expected to forge partnerships with official agencies to initiate programs to generate direct employment for young Saudis. The career fair will help acquaint the young jobseekers with different skills needed in the job market because the business sector is exerting great efforts to develop the national human resources. They are also trying to strengthen ties and open communication channels with society by training and employing Saudi jobseekers. This, the ACCI said, will help decrease the rate of unemployment even among people with special needs. The ACCI stressed its role in protecting the interests of Saudi young men and women, as this is an important national responsibility and one of the pre-requisites of achieving sustainable socio-economic development. The successive national development plans have focused on these aspects, which is reflected in the volume of spending on education and training, the statement added. A new economic bulletin issued by the ACCI provides accurate information and statistics on unemployment after the Central Statistics Department carried out field surveys to determine the magnitude of the unemployment problem. The ACCI carried out its own surveys as part of efforts to analyze the reasons for unemployment in Asir in particular and the Kingdom in general. The analysis confirms that the rate of unemployment in Asir has reached 10.7 percent. The unemployment ratio swelled in Asir during 2006-2011 when the total workforce in the region rose by 82,000 whereas the increase was only 30,352 in 2006. In 2011, the total workforce in the region reached 382,007, with an average annual growth of 4.1 percent.
