Saudi Gazette/ Okaz JEDDAH – The physically challenged should be assimilated into society and their job prospects should be increased, said Adel Fakieh, Minister of Labor. He made the comments while addressing the final meeting of the directors of the labor offices which took place in Jeddah on Wednesday. During the meeting, Fakieh stressed the importance of supporting recruitment departments at the labor offices by taking advantage of the knowledge of manpower experts and organizing on-the-job training programs. Participants also reviewed the results of the “Hidden Detector Program" which the ministry has started implementing. The program sends a ministry employee to impersonate a citizen who is in need of a service. The employee tours the ministry's offices in order to detect shortcomings in the performance of staff. The measure is meant to improve the quality of services provided by the ministry to the public. Mervat Tashkandi, advisor to Fakieh, said there were 600 million disabled people in the world who roughly constitute 10 percent of the world's population. Out of them, 400 million people are capable of working. Tashkandi said 45 percent of the disabled people in the Kingdom whose ages range between 20 to 59 years are capable of working.
