Saudi newspapers highlighted in their editorials today a number of issues at local, regional and international arenas. Al-Bilad newspaper said in its editorial that corruption represents the greatest threat to the economy, development and countries' capabilities; therefore, anti-corruption is one of the most important international indicators. In this regard, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recorded remarkable successes in tackling corruption in all its forms without exceptions. The paper further said that these successes represent the generous directives and strong support from the wise leadership to combat corruption, in a way that ensures the protection of the nation's gains in every field, promotion of justice and social and economic stability principles, as well as boosting investors' confidence, in order to advance the Kingdom's position in international rankings of integrity and transparency. In this prosperous era, Saudi Arabia affirmed its practical strategy in the fight against corruption, as this strategy is an essential pillar to ensure the safety of the development process, the newspaper concluded. Al-Yaum and Al-Riyadh newspapers reported in their editorials that addressing the unemployment problem is one of the main goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques proceeds with efforts to reduce the unemployment rate to less than 7% by 2030. In this regard the Cabinet has approved to establish a unified national platform named The Unified National Employment Platform, which includes a database of job seekers in the public and private sectors. The platform will contribute to increasing transparency and disclosure about jobs, their quality, job seekers information, and it will eliminate many of the negatives that job seekers struggled from in the past, the newspapers added. The results of the labor force survey issued by the General Authority for Statistics show that the total unemployment rate is still high, but the Saudi unemployment rate decreased from 15.4% in Q2 2020 to 14.9% in Q3 2020. Moreover, Saudi male unemployment rate amounted to 7.9%, while Saudi female unemployment rate amounted to 30.2%. Therefore, the government's efforts will continue to achieve more reforms in the labor market and increase the Saudization percentage to enable the Saudi youths to contribute to the development of their country, the paper concluded. In another context, Okaz newspaper said it in its editorial that the Saudi economy has proven its strength, in addition to being the focus of attention of major global companies. As a result , as many as 24 international companies have signed agreements to establish main regional offices in Riyadh. The paper added that this step reflects the importance and confidence in the Saudi market regionally and globally. It also affirms the success of Vision 2030 that aims to double the size of the economy and achieve major leaps in generating jobs, improving the quality of life, and attracting and expanding investments to place Riyadh among the ten largest city economies in the world by 2030. The newspaper added that the nature of the Saudi economy has contributed to achieving the objectives of the headquarters attraction program that aims to increase the percentage of the local content, reduce any economic leakage, and develop new sectors, in addition to creating more than 35,000 jobs.
