There will be 30,000 information technology (IT) jobs for Saudi nationals over the next five years, according to Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Ja'fari, Governor of the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC). Al-Ja'fari told Okaz in the sidelines of the information technology forum in Riyadh Sunday that the commission will ask the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Higher Education and the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) to fill these positions with Saudis. The forum is entitled: “The challenges and opportunities for developing information technology in the Kingdom”. Al-Ja'fari said the information technology sector's current spending is an estimated SR22 billion. He expects it to reach SR37 billion in 2014. He added that there is a shortage of information technology specialists in the Kingdom and this shortage will increase over the coming five years. Al-Ja'fari called on the private sector to try to benefit from the information technology sector. Meanwhile, Dr. Sulaiman Mirdad, CITC Deputy Governor for Information Technology Affairs, said Saudization in the IT sector is only at 21 percent. He added that 50 percent of companies are suffering from a lack of IT skills among their workers.
