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RIYADH, 28 October 2004 — A cross-section of the diplomatic
community and manpower recruitment agencies feel that the
Labor Ministry’s drive to push Saudization will have its
long-term impact in reducing manpower supplies from South Asia
and Arab countries.
Already, there are clear indications of the shape of things
to come. A Saudi company has been temporarily barred by the
labor office in Riyadh from transferring sponsorship of
employees hired from another company until it accounts for the
whereabouts of its former employees who are absconding.
And, in another development, an Indian portal, YaHind.Com,
has reported a sharp increase in the daily hits from
40,000-45,000 in the past to over 63,000 hits following the
launch of a new feature, yahindjobs, last week.
“The huge increase is due to the fact that Indians who lost
their jobs because of Saudization have been logging on to our
website in search of jobs,” Syed Zia-ur-Rahman, editor and CEO
of YaHind.Com, told Arab News.
Philippine Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla, however, said
there was no perceptible change in the manpower situation from
the Philippines, from where 100,000 Filipinos enter the Saudi
labor market annually. A majority of the Filipinos are skilled
people working mainly in the health care sector as well as in
banks and private-sector establishments. The number of
Filipinos in the Kingdom is estimated at 700,000.
Ambassador Guinomla said he has noticed a distinctive trend
with regard to Filipino nurses deployed in the Kingdom. “Those
who have working experience in this country are being targeted
by hospitals in the US, Canada and Ireland. As they leave for
those destinations in the West, those vacancies are again
filled up by new arrivals from the Philippines. So it’s kind
of a relay situation,” he observed.
The south Indian state of Kerala has been the hardest hit
of all, since an estimated 40 percent of the 1.5 million
non-resident Indians in the Kingdom are from that state.
According to a source from the Indian Embassy, the Labor
Ministry’s move to reduce manpower import by 100,000 annually
could affect one million Indian expatriates directly or
indirectly.
Asked to give his assessment, Ali Akbar, charge d’affaires
at the Bangladesh Embassy, said the Saudization drive would
definitely have an impact on those areas that are targeted by
the ministry. However, a majority of jobs held by Bangladeshis
are those that are shunned by others.
At the same time, he pointed out, the Ministry of Health
has dispatched a team to Bangladesh for the recruitment of
doctors, pathologists and technicians from that country. So
this kind of a controlled flow of skilled manpower is expected
to continue.
However, Abdul Majeed, manager of a manpower recruitment
agency from Bangladesh, said the situation was really bad for
manpower agencies. “The ministry is either canceling visas or
drastically reducing the number of visas. This has affected
our business leading either to the retrenchment of employees
or closure of business. We are in a bad shape.”
Saudi businessmen have also expressed reservations over
what they perceive as the “undue haste” in forcing Saudization
on reluctant employers.
At a meeting held recently at the Council of Saudi Chambers
of Commerce & Industry, local business leaders pointed to
the difficulties facing Saudization, in particular the
shortage of skilled and qualified Saudis. It was already
forcing some Saudi businesses to move to neighboring states
and from there export their products to the Kingdom.
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