Okaz/Saudi Gazette

DAMMAM — Abdul Salam Al-Tuwaijri, the director of Saudization of the commercial sector at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, stated that the ministry is examining a study to Saudize grocery (baqala) stores. “The commercial cover-up (tasattur) committee, comprising representatives of several government agencies, has carried out the study. There are potential difficulties in ending the phenomenon of a cover-up by Saudization,” he said while emphasizing that Saudization is not the cure for tasattur.

Al-Tuwaijri made the remarks while addressing a webinar on “Definition and explanation of the mechanism for localizing sales outlets” organized by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Eastern Province (Asharqia) on Thursday. He said that the ministry has worked out a mechanism, in coordination with the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monshaat), with regard to the activities of the Guided Localization.

“The mechanism depends on the size of the establishment so that the Saudization percentage rises with the increase of the size of the facility until the Saudization reaches up to 70 percent,” he pointed out.

Al-Tuwaijri said the ministry is keen on coordinating with the National Commercial Committee at the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) before implementing the Saudization of sales outlets.

“Workshops for micro, small, medium and large enterprises will be organized in this regard. A joint committee along with the Commercial Committee at CSC has been set up to study the localization of nine types of outlets within a period of five months,” he said.

Al-Tuwaijri attributed Saudization of sales outlets to the presence of a large number of jobs, in addition to being close to residential areas, while taking into account of the fact that a large proportion of Saudi job seekers are women.

“The decision to localize sales outlets does not target the feminization of those targeted sectors as they are available to both Saudi men and women. The ministry is not concerned with imposing feminization on the localization of the sales outlets,” he said while stressing that the ministry is studying many sectors targeted for Saudization.

Al-Tuwaijri noted that a major segment of Saudi job seekers, who are holders of secondary school certificates and diplomas as well as some university degree holders lack experience in the labor market. Employing this segment in major jobs is difficult as it contributes to paralyzing the private sector, he said while explaining that the retail sector is one of the large sectors which creates large numbers of jobs, especially since there are many retail jobs that do not require much experience.

He stressed that the ministry has worked out on Saudizing key jobs in major sectors such as engineering and health. It is also keen to carry out studies about the sectors targeted for Saudization before its launch, by studying the market and getting to know about Saudi job seekers in those sectors in various regions of the Kingdom.