By Abdullah Al-Ghamdi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

RIYADH — The Ministry of Civil Service has asked all ministries and government departments to get rid of all expatriate workers within three years, according to deputy minister Abdullah Al-Melfi.

The ministry said that there were 70,000 expats in the public sector until the end of last year.

“There will be no expatriate workers in the government after 2020,” he told a meeting here on Monday.

The meeting, which focused on the Saudization plan by 2020, was followed by a workshop titled “Job nationalization.”

A number of senior officials from the ministry and HR experts in a number of ministries, departments and universities participated in the meeting and the workshop.

“The complete nationalization of the government jobs is an important objective of the National Transformation Program 2020 and the Kingdom’s Vision 2030,” Malfi said.

The deputy minister said the achievement of NTP and the Vision entails the cooperation of all ministries and government departments.

The workshop began with a detailed report about the present situation of the Saudization process followed by a presentation on the procedures of job nationalization by 2020.

The meeting discussed various difficulties in the nationalization of government jobs and listened to the views and the opinions of the representatives of the ministries and departments on this aspect.