Adel Faqih, Minister of Labor, said today that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has contributed to the concerted Arab efforts to activate Arab economic and development summit resolutions since the launch of an initiative to hold periodical economic and development summits at Riyadh third summit in 2007. Speaking at the first session titled 'Potentials of Employment' of the ongoing 2nd Arab Forum on Development and Employment which was kicked off in Riyadh last night, Faqih underscored the importance of cooperation between the Arab Labor Organization and the World Bank to tackle the issue of employment as it was evident that no single ministry or department could make success in dealing with the issues of development and employment without the participation of the economic and social activists as well as civil organizations, chambers of commerce and labor unions. Faqih drew the attention to the prominent challenges facing labor markets, citing widened gap between educational, technical and vocational training output on one hand and the actual requirements of labor market on the other. He told the forum that Saudi Arabia has established the General Establishment for Technological and Vocational Training to rectify the imbalance between offer and demand in the labor market. He cited that the Kingdom has hosted the Arab Association for Technological and Vocational Training which was initiated by the First Arab Forum on Technological and Vocational Training and Labor market requirements held in collaboration between the Arab Labor Organization and the Technological and Vocational Training General Establishment in Riyadh in2010 as an Arab reference to enhance the national, regional and Arab efforts and provide a mechanism for experience exchanges. Faqih said the priorities and interest of the government of Saudi Arabia to make the development process a success are focusing on raising the human resources development indexes, developing the productive skills and abilities, encouraging and supporting initiatives and innovations of youths, providing social care and protection at the most widest extent to enable all members of society to achieve the comprehensive development goals in a safe and social default-free environment to guarantee the rights of future generations in development. He cast light on the procedures taken by the Saudi government over the last few years to boost this sector, including the instructions ordered by the monarch to increase the subsidy to expand and develop the establishments, mechanisms and funds aiming at developing human resources in terms of education, rehabilitating the technological and vocational training, health care, social protectionism, improving the labor environment, investment climate, encouraging the private sector for more job opportunities, and making the employment programs a success.
