Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – Minister of Labor Adel Fakieh said that the Nitaqat program was instrumental in increasing the rate of Saudization by 15 percent by Nov. 5. “Some 723,000 Saudi men and women got employed since the start of the program. The number of Saudis drawing a monthly salary of SR3,000 or more also rose to about a million,” he said. Fakieh made the remarks recently while addressing senior officials of the Council of Saudi Chambers, and president and members of the coordination council of the concerned national committees representing the private sector. He told the participants that the ministry is very much interested in hearing feedback from the private sector on its initiatives to Saudize jobs. He urged businessmen to log on to the ministry website and give their opinion. The initiatives and the crackdown on residency law violators have helped many businesses move from the Red Zone to the Green and Yellow zones. He listed the challenges the ministry faced and the solutions it designed to improve the labor market for Saudi job seekers. Some businesses in the construction sector had difficulty obtaining visas to recruit skilled workers. For those, the ministry issued a special system to exchange such workers among construction companies. Fake Saudization is still a major challenge. The ministry is planning to issue new regulations to prevent companies from engaging in such negative practice. “We'll require each company to maintain its Green Zone status for a certain period of time before it can recruit workforce from abroad or even make advantage of other services offered by the ministry,” Fakieh said.
