RIYADH — The Nitaqat Saudization program has contributed significantly to increasing the number of Saudi employees registered with the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI), reaching their number around 1.8 million, while compared to 800,000 Saudis before the launch of the program in 2011. This was disclosed by Saad Al-Hammad, spokesman of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. Speaking to Okaz/Saudi Gazette, Al-Hammad said that the number of establishments registered in the Nitaqat program in the Saudi employment market accounted for 1.6 million. "The ministry is striving to provide decent and attractive jobs for male and female citizens and increase the share of their participation in the local labor market. "The ministry is working in accordance with its labor market strategy that aims to develop the market and raise its efficiency," he said. As part of this, Al-Hammad said, the ministry launched the new version of the 'Updated Nitaqat" Saudization program. "The new version of the program is one of the most important pillars of the ministry's strategic transformation initiatives that aim to integrate economic classifications to be 32 activities instead of 85 activities. "This is expected more simplification and clarity in the work of the program in its new version," he added. It is noteworthy that the revised second version is expected to create 340,000 jobs by 2024 and simplifies the compliance rules for businesses. The Nitaqat program was first launched in 2011 to encourage the localization of jobs and set a minimum wage for Saudis in the private sector while the second version, which was developed in partnership with the private sector, contains three new features. The first is a clear localization plan with a transparent vision to increase private sector organizational stability over the next three years. The second feature creates a new linear formula for determining the target Saudization ratio instead of the classification of establishments to certain and fixed sizes. The third part simplifies the design of the program through integrating common activities, by offering 32 choices instead of 85. Also, the minimum wage level, first set at SR3,000, was increased to SR4,000 at the beginning of the second quarter of 2021.
