Saudisation is slashed to keep sector moving

The construction boom has created heavy demand for site workers in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has slashed its Saudisation requirement and opened up its market to a larger foreign workforce in a move to encourage contractors to bid for more work in the country.

The cut in the Saudisation quota for on-site workers from 10 to 5% was prompted by a severe labour shortage, which has so far hampered construction activity.

Saudi Arabia's government launched its Saudisation programme in 2003 in a bid to eliminate massive unemployment among Saudi nationals by reducing the country's intake of foreign workers.

"This percentage drop will surely help contractors because most of them are trying to increase their manpower to take on more work," said Ahmed Arees, project manager, Saudi Binladin Group.

Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE have also adopted drives to encourage nationals to enter the job market and reduce the dependence on foreign workers.

But in industries such as construction, the policy has proved difficult to implement due to reluctance among nationals to do on-site jobs.

"Saudi nationals usually take on administration jobs, not on-site work, which then makes it inevitable to employ foreign workers. This is the main reason why reducing the percentage has helped contractors," added Arees.

Despite the cutback, some contractors are still steering towards getting more Saudi nationals working in construction. "We are very bullish about employing Saudi nationals, so this drop hasn't really made much of a difference to us," said Mazen Fayed, corporate communications manager, Saudi Oger.

"We even plan to build a technical institute to train young Saudi nationals to work on our projects. We will train them in all sorts of jobs, including on-site work. In any case, the 5% is applicable only for those who are directly working on construction sites. It is not applicable for administrative staff."

A large number of managerial staff working for foreign construction companies in Saudi Arabia tend to be either European or American, with the labour force coming mainly from South East Asia.

But despite sticking to the Saudisation requirement, some still come up against problems when applying for work permits.

"We stay well within the Saudisation criteria but even then we are refused visas for foreign workers many times," said Christoph Kleiner, general manager, Saudi Liebherr Company.

"At the moment the Saudi government prefers workers from the Philippines to workers from India and Pakistan, so we know that we stand a better chance to get visas if we ask for Filipinos. But on the whole, this 5% reduction has made things much easier," he added.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Filipino Preferred by Saudi
Posted by Rod Mercado, Abu Dhabi, UAE on Monday 12 January 2009 at 12:28 UAE time

It's so flattering to hear that Filipinos are preferred by Saudi as their source of manpower.

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