In the article "Young minister fights “Fat Cats”" (Nov. 26), Dr. Khaled Batarfi expressed his opinion regarding automobile dealers in general and his own experience with his car repair in particular. While I respect each person's right to express his opinion, and while I consider Dr. Khalid to be a friend, I am compelled to offer a response to the harsh, unfair and frankly, incorrect information, he offered in his column. Apart from implying that auto dealers' personnel in general are incompetent, unqualified and unreliable, he went as far as accusing them of being “unpatriotic” in the second paragraph and in the second to last paragraph called them “deaf, dumb, and greedy”. As a proud member of the automobile industry in Saudi Arabia for my entire business career, I am surprised at the tone and content of his message which, as I mentioned, is riddled with inaccuracies and plainly incorrect statements which are designed to mislead the reader into certain highly negative opinions of the Saudi auto industry. These inaccuracies begin with his assertion that the Minister of Commerce, Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah asked American automobile manufacturers to serve Saudis directly and not through “greedy and incompetent agents”. He mentioned that in reference to the Minister's visit to Dearborn, Michigan in May, 2013 to a conference promoting local Saudi auto assembly and manufacturing. I do not recall in the record of this visit, or any other visit, anything about the Minister calling Saudi dealers “greedy and incompetent” and I do not recall any Saudi dealer protesting about anything the Minister said in the meeting. This was the first shot of Dr. Khaled after which he called Saudi auto dealers "unpatriotic". It is worth noting here that Saudi businessmen in the auto sector are some of the oldest and most respected business families of Saudi Arabia and come from all regions of the Kingdom. I am sure I speak on their behalf when I protest against this unfortunate labeling by Dr. Khaled. Dr. Khaled then proceeds to share with us some unfortunate car repair stories with some dealers leading one of his friends to sell his “English Jeep for pennies”. As with any sector of the economy, there will doubtless be stories of unsatisfied customers as well as satisfied customers. Citing stories of unsatisfied customers is important. But what is also important is to understand fully the level of service provided by the auto industry in general in Saudi Arabia compared to (as Dr. Khaled mentioned) other neighboring countries as well as other markets worldwide. Auto manufacturers regularly conduct quality and customer satisfaction surveys throughout their markets and share this feedback with their importers and distributors to build on their strengths and address their weaknesses. Dr. Khaled asserts that all Saudi dealers are some of the worst in the world. That is not correct. In fact, Saudi dealers are some of the most heavily invested auto distributors in the world in terms of sales and service facilities all designed to support the customer after he buys a car. I know Dr. Khaled would receive a very welcome reception if he wanted to meet with any car manufacturer in any country to discuss the Saudi market and where it stands in terms of customer service and satisfaction among others in the world. And I know he will be pleasantly surprised to find that most Saudi dealers score very high grades in those categories compared to their other international colleagues. Dr. Khaled shares his own experience with his car after experiencing an accident which damaged two of his doors and complains about the time it took the dealer to repair the damage. Unfortunately, Dr. Khaled neglected to mention that his vehicle spent more time waiting for him to provide the required documentation from the Ministry of Interior and the Traffic Department to allow the dealer to begin repairs, than the time it actually took to repair the vehicle. He became upset because the service workshop personnel waited for the proper procedures and paperwork mandated by the Traffic Department, and did not begin repair work regardless of those regulations as he wanted. So ironically, he became irritated because he was not apparently treated like the “fat cats” he is supposedly attacking in the article. Surely Dr. Khaled does not think he should be above the law when it comes to Traffic Department rules. There was no delay in paperwork from the dealer's side, and his vehicle took the normal time it takes to perform a quality body repair. Another misconception Dr. Khaled promotes in his article is the issue of exclusivity in Saudi Arabia. In fact, there is no Saudi law protecting the exclusivity of auto distributors and there never was. Auto manufacturers have the right to decide how many, and where they would like to appoint dealers. Their decision is based on their market surveys and their own needs regarding market representation. Why would you otherwise find some auto brands with only one dealer, some with two, some with three, etc? Clearly there are no restrictions and there has never been any mandate from the Ministry of Commerce regarding the number of dealers. We also regularly notice auto franchises changing hands in the Saudi market, with no interference from the Ministry of Commerce. So, where is this presumed exclusivity law? The Saudi market has always been open to all companies exporting to it in any sector of the economy, and to decide on their own what kind of distribution or market representation they have. The only condition is that they needed to work with Saudis and not alone, but certainly as many as they like. I am also surprised at Dr. Khaled's call for foreign companies to ignore appointing Saudi partners and open directly on their own. While more foreign investment and participation in our economy is to be encouraged, there are certain sectors where we do need to have Saudi partners take the lead with possible participation of foreign manufacturers. We should encourage foreign participation in certain sectors of the economy to promote industry, especially in manufacturing where Saudi Arabia will gain from technology transfer to lift the level of our competitiveness and innovation. However, do we really want our retail and wholesale businesses owned by foreign companies who will repatriate all the profits to their home countries, and also be held hostage to their investment decisions which will stop or slow down in periods of Middle East turmoil, or do you want these functions to be controlled and invested in by Saudis, who will keep investing and growing their businesses in Saudi Arabia and who will not run away or freeze their investment at the first sign of regional Middle East trouble which, let's face it, happens all the time? And where do you think the head offices of these companies will be? Riyadh, Jeddah…. or Dubai? I think a call to hand over our businesses to foreign companies and countries does smack of being "unpatriotic" to me. Finally, it is very regrettable to see Dr. Khaled close his opinion column by labeling us auto dealers using the words “deaf... dumb…and greedy”. As I mentioned, I do welcome differences of perspectives and a healthy debate on any subject, but resorting to insulting a large and well respected sector of our business community in such an open and unjustified manner should be well below the standards of such an experienced and accomplished journalist and commentator as Dr. Khaled Batarfi, even if he feels his car took longer to be repaired than it should.
— Ali Alireza is Managing Director of Haji Husein Alireza & Co Ltd.
