Muhammad Al-Masud Al-Eqtisadiah The poor are no longer capable of holding fast to anything to make ends meet. The force of Saudization that is binding on small enterprises is set to bring in more poverty. Doors for survival will be shut for many people if the Ministry of Labor goes on taking hasty decisions or classifying firms and exploring whether Saudization can apply in any given trade or not. Such a move will make us not only lose everything, but also strive to build what we have demolished and regain what we have lost. And demolition of a structure means we have to pay more than what we can afford for rebuilding. There are practical difficulties in imposing Saudization in some sectors. Let me give one example. Take the case of a bakery. There are two men working at its 24-meter oven standing on their feet throughout their working hours. They are directly exposed to the extreme heat from the oven. The monthly revenues from this project most often do not exceed SR3,000, and is divided among the owner and the workers. How is it possible to implement Saudization in such a project, by giving a SR3,000 salary and SR600 for the General Organization for Social Insurance premium, in addition to health insurance? How is it possible to promote such a project with such a huge financial burden? Is a Saudi ready to be employed in such a place? In such cases, the added cost will be needed to be collected from the customers but it is not possible. Hence, employing Saudis would eventually lead to the closure of such bakeries across the Kingdom. There are scores of such small projects which face closure in spite of the great social services they are providing to meet the requirements of people in their localities. We have to really reexamine the trades in which Saudization is possible while taking into consideration the people's needs. We have to stop implementing Saudization in those projects with nominal profits and low revenues. What will be the situation of the city where there is not even a single substitute for the closed down bakeries? Of course, people will be the ultimate victims. Society is also the victim because all legislation and decisions are aimed at serving its interests and goodness, in addition to realizing its ambitions, aspirations and needs. The imposition of Saudization has seen the number of advertisements for shops on sale increasing. These shops, which were providing us with the much needed services, have been forced to shut down without any consideration for an alternative solution. We should expect more problems like this in the coming months. Therefore, I hope that the governorates, labor offices and mayoralties across the Kingdom will come forward with quick steps to save the large number of small businesses facing closure. Failure to do so will make us regretful for losing millions of riyals spent on establishing these small enterprises. Sooner or later, this will also impose on us another liability of spending millions of riyals in building what we are destroying or shutting down now. These are the projects of the poor. Take notice, O Ministry of Labor.
