Foreign manpower makes up 87 percent of the Saudi private sector, according to Ibrahim Al-Kernas, Assistant Secretary for Settlement Affairs at the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry. He was speaking at the opening session of the human resources forum here Sunday. Al-Kernas in his presentation entitled “Manipulate the HR strategy to cope with an evolved business strategy under the new financial situation”, delivered on behalf of Dr. Fahd Al-Sultan, Secretary General of the Council of Saudi Chambers, said that many factors must be taken into consideration in designing a business strategy, such as the fact that there is a five percent annual increase in the number of foreign workers in the Kingdom and a 2.4 percent increase in the population as well as an unemployment rate of seven percent. He added that although the nation was applying a process of Saudization, the number of foreign workers increased five percent annually due to the lack of proper structural human resources planning. Al-Kernas said that changes in the business strategy are faced with the problem of the high percentage of foreign technical manpower in the private sector, the increased number of Saudi high school graduates and the limited expansion of e-learning in the Kingdom. “We have to concentrate on quality education and training, if we want to have a new era of professional advancement,” he said. Al-Kernas said that the private sector is facing many obstacles in its attempt to achieve its goals. “It is important to create a balance between the growth of the population and the economy and to guide high school gradates to technical colleges and universities to solve the problem of unemployment in the Kingdom,” he added. Meanwhile, the forum aims to evaluate the current status of human resources in the Kingdom and is expected to provide ideas for developing human resources and to find solutions for applying the Saudization program in the private sector.
