Kuwailit Al-Riyadh newspaper ANY future long-term plans for the country should be based on a healthy balance between the utilization of the nation's precious natural resources and the intellectual development of its citizens. Educational and technological development of Saudis is an essential step to achieving a balanced and sustainable economic model that will carry us forward for years to come. The Kingdom has been carrying out major development projects with huge investments in the education, industry and mining sectors. However, poor administration and execution of some of these projects has led to many delayed and failed projects. To be specific, government departments award projects to large companies that pass on the work to subcontractors who often do not have the required expertise or capabilities to properly and effectively execute such technical and large-scale projects. A lack of supervision only worsens the situation and the incompetence of these contractors undoubtedly results in faulty or delayed projects. Contractors are only concerned with earning a minimum profit of 20 percent and ultimately the loser is the state and the people. Three major companies hold a firm monopoly on all major projects carried out in the country and according to a statistical report issued last week, only 6 percent of the tens of thousands of employees in these three companies are Saudis. The companies employ foreign administrators, engineers, accountants, and technicians while qualified Saudi youths go unemployed. This issue has been highlighted in the media several times but the companies still remain unaccountable for their negligence. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated the number of unemployed citizens in Gulf countries will reach 3 million over the next 5 years. The IMF report has also pointed at the paradox of such high unemployment rates in a region abundant with natural resources and relatively low populations that allows millions of expatriates to hold both low-level and high-ranking jobs. Such an illogical situation also results in serious security and moral problems that contribute to rising crime rates and drug trafficking. The issue is beyond the single-handed efforts of a ministry or studies undertaken by some committees. The situation warrants urgent government action and immediate solutions. One cannot help but wonder if it is logical to allow huge corporations that strongly resist governmental efforts to end unemployment in the Kingdom to continue to make profits in the billions of Saudi riyals. Whole-hearted and continuous cooperation of private companies is required to ease the Kingdom's unemployment issue because thousands of fresh graduates are entering the job market every year. Their numbers are set to increase in the future as a large number of Saudi youths who have been sent abroad for higher studies and the thousands of graduates coming out of our universities and specialized institutes are set to enter the job market. __
