Your Highness … this is not the way to go

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YOUR Highness Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, it is not a secret that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an economic locomotive not only for Arabs in general, but also for GCC countries in particular.

Accordingly, anything that happens in the Kingdom directly affects the Gulf and the Arab world. If we, as GCC citizens, dreamt of achieving economic unity among members of our organization, we looked forward to it by coordinating efforts among the sons of the organization when the Gulf economic movement became integrated in the world — whether through investment, import or export. Whenever the six countries have the same level of determination, they become more influential.

Yet before anything else, it is necessary to be frank in talking about procedures which disrupt investments due to the steps taken by some ministries in the Kingdom and they repeat the same mistakes committed by some GCC countries including Kuwait; thereby, causing economic recession.

Your Highness the Prince…

We talk to you frankly as you are the chairman of Economic and Development Affairs because we felt your imprints in freeing the economy of the Kingdom from several restrictions which prevented it from achieving development goals. We noticed your imprints in pumping fresh blood in managing an old economic administration. You succeeded in providing a dynamic mechanism that protected the Kingdom from ‘tremors’, making it more powerful in confronting and surmounting crises particularly after the remarkable oil price decline.

Today, when the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz approved a budget of 860 billion Saudi Riyals and allotted most of it for development projects in all fields, it is important to accompany that with courageous steps to improve the performance and attract investments to reassure the private sector and make the movement of capital focus on developing the industrial base. This will in turn help lessen dependence on oil from 73 percent to less than 30 percent, as such industrial base covers a huge area estimated at 2.15 million square meters.

It is not a secret that the private sector shoulders a bigger development burden. As a media practitioner who is always in touch with businessmen in the Kingdom and keeps an eye on the economic movement, I would like to indicate that there are some comments on the performance of certain ministries, among which the Ministry of Labor. Despite your tremendous efforts to achieve development and advancement, the ministry adopts some procedures which impede these efforts such as the ‘Saudization’ of all sectors without conducting a thorough study. This causes chaos in dealing with big companies, institutions and industrial facilities which are forced by the ministry to employ Saudis. In fact, this gives rise to disguised unemployment because those people could become a burden for the economy as they are placed in sectors with very low salaries. This has prompted investors to abandon the Saudi market and search for another place which is free from such restrictions. This means the Saudi economy will lose an added value.

A few weeks ago, the ministry issued a decision to ‘Saudize’ the telecommunications sector — a move we have been anticipating for a long time. We have been longing for Saudization of vocational facilities, support activities and services. This is in addition to what is known in economics as ‘commercial vocations’ that the citizens of Saudi Arabia despise. I wish you can visit Al-Batha region or other similar areas in Saudi cities and villages to see those who work in certain establishments such as groceries, retail shops and others. They are all non-Saudi workers.

The sector controls a huge amount of money and supports the national economy, especially if Saudis are involved in it. This is because the profits made from it will remain inside Saudi Arabia, contrary to the current situation. A quick glance at banking reports is an opportunity to realize the percentage of money going outside the country from those vocations and professions. Therefore, localizing the abovementioned sectors is far more essential than clamping down economic establishments and industries through the procedures taken by the ministry to ‘Saudize’ them.

Your Excellency Deputy Crown Prince, there are many examples that could be cited for development purposes such as the gigantic projects in Dubai. If its government had embarked on ‘moving workers’ policy, will it be possible to build Burj Khalifa where the British, Filipinos, Bangladeshis and others worked? These people left after accomplishing the project, but the Burj remains a source of millions for Dubai and from which its citizens are benefiting.

Another example is Switzerland whose citizens specialize in the production of watches, jewelries and chocolates, while they left other sectors for non-Swiss. Would the country attain development if it followed the ‘Switzerlization’ policy like ‘Saudization’?

If there is an unemployment problem in Saudi Arabia, it cannot be solved through random ‘Saudization’ and hurting manufacturing establishments by clamping down their activities. The right solutions are beneficial to the national economy and the private sector should be a part of such steps, including imposing taxes on establishments and companies which did not find Saudis who are suitable for the required professions. The money earned from it should be set aside for social insurance and aid for Saudis, in addition to establishing training institutes and conducting awareness campaigns to encourage Saudi youths to be involved in all vocations that they are trying to avoid now.

Your Highness Deputy Crown Prince, allow us to raise these issues because Saudi Arabia is dear to us whereas our economy is linked to it and directly affected by whatever happens there. Therefore, we are telling you this in order to ensure continuous and speedy economic and industrial development. These ideas came from business moguls or deduced from experiences in our second country — Saudi Arabia, such that what you are planting now will bear fruits.

This is not aimed at creating redundancy in the private sector in a way that will be a burden on economic and industrial activities; thereby, slowing down the development process. For this, we wish to make a suggestion or apply the principle of need which says, “Let people need the job, to pave way for creativity.”

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah – Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

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