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Saudi Arabia to put cap on expatriates By Mridula Krishna, Indo-Asian News Service Dubai, Feb 3 (IANS) Saudi Arabia, which hosts the largest number of Indian workers in the Gulf, has announced plans to put a 20 percent ceiling on the number of expatriate workers and their dependents in the kingdom. This is part of efforts to solve a mounting unemployment problem, news reports said. The plan will be executed within 10 years. Official figures say there are seven million expatriate workers in the kingdom of which 1.5 million are Indian. They work mainly in private companies and send remittances worth over 50 billion riyals annually. The Arab News daily said the Manpower Council, which is chaired by Interior Minister, Prince Naif, in light of a study conducted on job market situation, took the decision Sunday. Abdul Wahid Al-Humaid, secretary-general of the council, said there were plans to ensure that the number of workers from any single country, along with their dependents, did not exceed 10 percent of the total number of expatriates. "Interior Minister and Chairman of the Manpower Council Prince Naif issued a decision fixing a ceiling for the number of expatriate workers and their dependents in the Kingdom. They should not exceed 20 percent of the total population in Saudi Arabia," Humaid told the Saudi Press Agency. According to him, the decision would reduce the number of expatriate workers in the country gradually over the next 10 years and more job opportunities would be created for Saudis. Unofficial statistics put the unemployment rate among Saudis at more than 15 percent. The kingdom has already taken several measures to create more jobs for Saudis. The government recently reserved 22 job sectors, in addition to 34 sectors already announced, for its nationals. It also intends to reserve taxi driver jobs for Saudi nationals within two years. Prince Naif urged private companies to cooperate to solve the country's growing unemployment problem by employing Saudis. He said that the employment of expatriates should not be at the expense of Saudi job seekers. Over 100,000 young Saudis enter the job market annually. The current figure for unemployed Saudis stands at 360,000, according to the Manpower Council. The government aims to create employment for an additional 817,300 Saudis over the next five years through the creation of new jobs. There are more than 5.2 million foreign workers in the private sector, representing 96 percent of the work force compared to 212,000 in the government sector, representing only four percent. --Indo-Asian News Service
