RIYADH — Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources has said that the ministry's Saudization plans worked well during the year 2020 with the creation of around 39,404 new jobs with the localization rate hitting 37 percent. The ministry said in its annual report based on the data of the National Industrial Information Center that these numbers came as a result of various initiatives the ministry supported to stabilize the sector during the coronavirus crisis, as the industrial sector was one of the sectors least affected during the crisis. According to the report, the ministry issued 903 new industrial licenses during the past year, with investments amounting to SR23.5 billion while 515 factories began operations in the same year. The ministry said in its monthly indices report for December that the total number of existing industrial establishments, including those under construction until the end of the month amounted to 9681, compared to 9630 in November. A total of 73 new factories were licensed during December, with the volume of investments, exceeding SR2 billion while 30 factories began production. The industrial sector contributed to creating 2,504 jobs during the same month, of which the Saudis accounted for 1,300 jobs. The number of factories until the end of last December reached 9681 factories, including 1074 factories for food products, 1268 for rubber products, in addition to 1162 factories for formed metal products excluding machinery and equipment, and the number of factories for other non-metallic minerals products reached 1935. The number of factories for paper and its products reached 364 while 323 factories for electrical equipment, 322 factories for unclassified machines, in addition to 477 metallurgical factories while the number of chemical factories reached 951, besides 356 factories for furniture.
