Dammam: A shortage of jobs and unemployment among Saudi youths and those who have completed jail sentences are serious concerns, Yasser Abdullah Al-Tewajeri, the Centennial Fund's director of public relations, said Tuesday at a conference in Dammam. Al-Tewajeri said 79 percent of people in the Kingdom who have completed jail terms are unemployed. Al-Tewajeri, who made the comment while addressing a forum on the financing industrial projects in the Gulf Countries Council, said there are about 877,000 unemployed job seekers in the Kingdom and an urgent need for 200,000 job opportunities. He also noted that Saudi Arabia has one of the world's highest rates of population growth, which has created the very challenging problem of youth unemployment. “All indications show that there is an urgent need to deal with this situation and an international consensus that the best solution is to help people to start their own projects,” he added. “This is a practical solution to build a wide base of energetic, productive and responsible youth,” he said. The way out The Centennial Fund helps establish projects by securing financial aid in the form of loans for youths to start projects, which cover 30 percent of their needs, and volunteer partners provide the remaining 70 percent through services and guidance. Adel Al-Sihami, acting head of the Credit Section at the Saudi Industrial Development Fund, said the organization's major role is to offer long- and medium-term loans for setting up projects, in addition to expanding and updating projects. He said the Saudi Industrial Development Fund charges for its services, particularly for its efforts to evaluate, study and follow-up projects. The charges, which are not collected in proportion to the loan, are calculated on the basis of the time its experts spend on the projects, he added. The Saudi Industrial Development Fund also provides technical, administrative, financial and marketing advice, which improves the projects and addresses difficulties, Al-Sehami said. An official from Bahrain, Amaar Al-Awaji, said his government collects about SR100 per month from every expatriate working there, in the form of service fees, and injects 80 percent of the money into the local market in the form of loans and grants for projects owned by Bahraini citizens. Talal Bin Abdul Rahman Alzadjali, head of studies and research at the Omani Development Bank, who presented a paper, “Financing Mechanism of the Projects,” said the Omani Development Bank finances large, medium and small industrial and handicraft projects. An Omani Development Bank official described its Intilaqa Est” program as an investment and social effort to disseminate the culture of private-sector work and aid small projects.
