According to the Central Department of Statistics and Information, the Kingdom's population in 2014 was over 30 million, a third of which (over 10 million) was non-Saudi. The number of non-Saudis in the Kingdom has been increasing since 1974. At that time, the percentage of non-Saudis was 11 percent, then in 1992 it climbed to 27 percent, and by 2010 it reached 31 percent. Finally, in 2014 it reached 33 percent. The population of non-Saudis annually grew 3.2 percent faster than Saudis. The reason behind this rapid growth is the manner in which expatriates have been recruited for construction projects and as domestic servants for Saudi families. The growth rate will go up in the future and will most likely account for half of the Kingdom's population after 10 years. It is needless to say that the Kingdom's demographics will be negatively affected in terms of the ratio of men and women. We will have more men than women, which is a major threat to social security. Our reliance on expatriate workers will increase and they will have the upper hand in running most businesses. Undoubtedly, this situation will increase unemployment. Qualified Saudis cannot find jobs because employers prefer cheap foreign labor. Besides, some employers give fake jobs to Saudis just to meet the Ministry of Labor's Saudization quota. If we ignore these changes, our society will remain weak and unable to build itself because we will end up relying on oil. People within Saudi society need to be more productive. We should not rely on expatriate workers because they will never stay in the Kingdom for good. They will come, work, gain experience and then return home, and the employer will have to recruit more workers and the cycle will continue. We should be determined and come up with positive initiatives. We should not imitate others and should not recruit expatriates to do our jobs. We should rely on our knowledge and logic to build our society, and we should be tolerant and loyal to our country. We need to hold on strong to our Islamic creed, be moderate and rid ourselves of extremism. These are the powers we need to unleash to build an advanced civilized society. Education is the way out. Our schools and curricula should be redesigned to incorporate goals that focus on educating and teaching, not on rote memorization. Our students should learn how to think, express ideas and be creative. Filling the curricula with subjects and courses that do not serve the ultimate goal of building a civilized society will hinder our advancement. Once we have such mechanisms in place, students who are unable to pursue further education could sign up for technical programs. They will graduate as technicians and eventually replace expatriate technicians. The authorities should issue regulations that support the training and qualifying of Saudis. Budgets should be allocated for this purpose and incentives should be given to employers who give real jobs to Saudis. To achieve all this, we need to eradicate bureaucracy and remove any obstacles there are on the path to innovation.
