Saudization of cell phone sector likely to hit hurdles

THE Ministry of Labor and Social Development’s plan to replace all expatriates working in mobile phone retail and maintenance stores with Saudis is being successfully implemented with several government agencies working hand in hand with the ministry to ensure that these stores are run only by Saudis. However, there are fears that some will find ways to circumvent the regulations, Al-Riyadh daily reports. Mesfer Al-Shahrani, who owns a mobile phone store, says the most pressing issue facing the mobile phone retail sector is Tasattur (an illegal understanding whereby Saudis permit foreigners to manage businesses in their names in return for a stake in profits). Another issue, according to Al-Shahrani, is that most Saudis refuse to work in a cell phone store because they do not want to perform menial tasks such as cleaning glass displays and carrying boxes or to work long hours. “If cell phone stores want to attract Saudis, they need to give them a small percentage of profits. Without such appealing offers, most Saudis will not be interested in running a cell phone store,” he said. Haroon Al-Rasheed, another mobile phone store owner, said it will be difficult for the ministry to achieve its 100 percent Saudization target because many Saudis refuse to work for a monthly salary of SR5,000 or to put in more than eight hours a day. “A large number of mobile phone stores do not pay salaries on time and most Saudis do not show for work on time. This is a recipe for disaster,” he said. According to Khalid Sami, also a mobile phone store owner, Saudizing the sector will be difficult because there are no regulations in place to guarantee stability and sustainability for Saudis. “Saudis might not see much of a future in terms of long term prospects and as a result may become discouraged from searching for a job in the sector. On the other hand, some of them might look at jobs in the sector as a temporary option until they find something better,” he said while calling on the Ministry of Labor and Social Development to Saudize the entire communications sector and not just mobile phone retail and maintenance stores. Despite concerns over the viability of the Saudization efforts, mobile phone store owner Abdulilah Al-Dakheel called on the ministry to intensify its campaigns to achieve full Saudization of the sector as doing so will reduce the volume of overseas remittances by expatriate workers. According to one Saudi working in the sector, one of the problems is that graduates of local colleges are often poorly trained and, as a result, struggle to cope with the demands of the job. “Mobile phone maintenance courses offered by local technology colleges are not enough and do not qualify graduates to be good technicians,” said Firas Al-Omari, a mobile phone technician. As a result of the poor training many Saudis receive from local colleges, they often learn on the job from expatriate technicians they are hired to replace. “I feel frustrated and depressed because I cannot keep up with expatriate technicians who took advanced courses in mobile phone maintenance. I had to get an apprenticeship with an experienced expatriate technician so he could teach me how to fix different technical problems of mobile phones. My salary is SR3,500 and I only get one day off a week. I don’t know if I can take the pressure anymore,” he said.