Saudi Arabia Rolls Out ‘Saudization’ Plan in Al-Baha Region’s Key Areas

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Under the recent plans announced by the Saudi Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Ahmed Al-Rajhi, sales outlets in the Al-Baha region will be required to only employ Saudi citizens as a part of the Kingdom’s ‘Saudization’ plan, Arab News reports.

Al-Rajhi ‘s announcement comes after the Crown Prince’s announced on Sunday the plans to open strategic offices to entice the development in three key regions of Al-Baha, Al-Jouf, and Jazan.

The Saudization plans that will come into action on January 14 2022, also envisage 10 other sectors in the area to be mandated to abide by the scheme, including electrical appliances, plastic materials and food and beverages industry.

The professions of cleaning, loading/unloading, and driving are excluded from the plans that also mandate cafes with a 50 % ‘Saudization’ quota while restaurants will have a target of 40%.

According to Al-Rajhi’s statement in early September, Saudization programs aim to create 213,000 jobs for Saudis during the year 2021, partnered with the Federation of Saudi Chambers in all its decisions related to the labor market.

Al-Rajhi emphasized that the ministry has realized the importance of accelerating businesses and raising the quality of services provided, pointing to the self-employment platform they initiated ahead of the launch of the Future Work Company, also issuing more than 800,000 self-employment work documents.

Saudization plan, officially known as the Saudi nationalization scheme, is part of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 goals to not encourage only the recruitment of nationals to private-sector jobs, but also adequate investment in their future to ensure their retention.

According to a report issued by the Human Resources Development Fund, Saudi Arabia is on the right track since the performance metrics show new Saudi employees entering the private sector in the first quarter of 2021reached 121,000.

The report also shows Saudization in the private sector rose to 22.75% in the Q1, compared to 20.37% during the same period in 2020, with finance and insurance sectors achieving impressive rate of 83.6%, making Saudi Arabia a country with the lowest dependence on foreign labor in GCC at about 77%.

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