Prince Muhammad Bin Fahd, Emir of Eastern Province, has called upon the private business sector to provide more training programs to Saudi youth to enable them to have better competitive edge in the local labor market. In a brief address at the opening 7th Human Resources Strategic Development Conference Saturday, which was delivered on his behalf by Prince Jalawi Bin Abdul Aziz Bin Musaad Al-Jalawi, Deputy Emir of the Eastern Province, Prince Muhammad told business leaders that they have the task to train and provide more job opportunities to Saudis. “It is my hope that this conference will seriously address and tackle this issue so that our young people will have better opportunities. Providing employment (to Saudis) is our moral responsibility,” Prince Muhammad said. “Human resource development is expensive; it is not an economic issue, but private business must give the right attention to upgrade and enhance Saudi human resources so that they could be competitive,” the Emir said. Abdulrahman Rashed Al-Rashed, president of the Asharqia Chamber, organizer of the conference, said the trend now being enforced by the private business sector is to provide training to Saudis not only to take local jobs, but also to prepare them to be ready to compete in the international labor market. “Foreign companies doing business in the Kingdom apply their global standards, which is why we need to focus our training to the requirements of an expanding global labor market,” he said. He said private business sector is mustering its resources to meet the requirement and criteria demanded by foreign companies. “We (private businessmen) are mobilizing our efforts; we expect the government to extend its support,” Al-Rashed said. The representative of the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), which is co-sponsoring the conference, highlighted the training programs of SEC. “All our training programs are engaged for Saudis. The Arabian Society for Human Resource Development is supporting us in identifying young Saudis who have the education, training, and capabilities to join us. In the process, the company is able to train young Saudis who are absorbed by SEC and employed by other companies as well,” he said. During the next three days, international experts on human resource development will discuss Saudi Arabia's acute unemployment problem. Saudi unemployment has led the government to establish the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), which has a mission to help create at least 20,000 jobs a year by providing training programs under the auspices of private companies. HRDF shoulders up to 75% of an employee salary during a two-year training period initiated by companies. The Fund is financed by the government and from fees levied on the renewal of expatriate labor permits. The General Statistics Department, Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, recorded about 470,000 unemployed Saudi men and women, mostly below the age of 30. These unemployed Saudis account for nearly 12 percent of the total Saudi work force. Saudi Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Ghosaibi has said that Saudi unemployment would not be stamped before three years. He said he hopes unemployment would not be longer than nine years. The Kingdom's eighth five-year development plan (2005-2009) is targeting to increase the share of the national work force in total manpower (both employed and unemployed) from 37 percent in 2005 to 39.2 percent in 2009. Much of this target is to increase the employment of women from the 10.3 percent in 2005 to 14.2 by the end of 2009. The manpower development under the eight five-year plan is aimed at “refining skills, activating capabilities and developing human competence in scientific, professional and technical aspect to meet development requirements and immediate and future needs of the labor market.” The Kingdom has a population of 24 million, about six million are foreigners. It is estimated between 10% to 30% of Saudi nationals are unemployed. __
