The Okaz Organization for Press and Publication, publisher of the Saudi Gazette and its Arabic-language sister publication Okaz, has won the Prince Naif Prize for Saudization for the fourth consecutive year. The Ministry of Labor has invited Waleed Kattan, Director General of Okaz, to receive this year's prize. In a press conference held at the Ministry of Labor in Riyadh on Tuesday to announce the name of the winning businesses, Dr. Abdul Wahid Al-Homaiyed, Deputy Minister of Labor, said that the ministry sees the prize as a unique opportunity to encourage business owners to employ, train Saudi nationals and develop their skills. He added that the ministry annually honors establishments that achieve the highest rates of Saudiazation. “The due attention the ministry gives to the localization of jobs comes within the government's general strategy and plans to localize jobs and replace expatriates with nationals, besides insuring suitable job opportunities for Saudis in the private sector,” said Homaiyed. “The Prince Naif Prize aims to encourage the private business establishments to attain the highest rates of Saudization, besides encouraging them for innovation and creativity in the area of training and employment of national job seekers.” He added that the ministry of Labor will honor 24 establishments for the year 2006 - 2007, at the top of which is ARAMCO for Gulf Work. Homaiyed said ARAMCO had obtained the diamond prize, and the remaining prizes will be distributed among eleven of the fourteen sectors in which the prize is applied, after excluding the sectors of agriculture, joint stock establishments, hospitality and travel and tourism for not achieving the required percentages that could have qualified them to compete for the prizes. The gold prize is awarded to establishments that achieved the highest points. There are also a silver and a bronze prize. He said a committee of the Ministry of Labor and the Council of Chambers of Commerce and Industry decide the winners, based on forms filled by establishments interested in the prize, which have to provide paperwork proving that they have achieved the required percentages. __
