Mahmoud Ahmad
THE Minister of Labor Mufrej Al-Haqbani issued orders last week for the total Saudization of all sales outlets and maintenance shops of mobile phones and their accessories within a period of six months. According to the new directive, the mobile shops will start implementing Saudization from March 10 (Jamad Al-Thani 1). All mobile sales and maintenance shops have to replace by 50 percent their expat workforce with Saudi men and women within three months, beginning from June 6 (Ramadan 1) and 100 percent within six months, starting from Sept. 3 (Dhul Hijjah 1). The minister said the new decision would be implemented in cooperation with the ministries of commerce and industry, municipal and rural affairs, and communications and information technology.
A real surgical move indeed by the minister, for according to reports, expat workers control 80 percent of this market. But the key question is whether the ministry’s latest move to Saudize would bear fruits. For attempts to Saudize a whole industry is something not new as many earlier attempts to Saudize industries have failed miserably. Examples of that is the gold market, the fruit market and Saudizing the limousine industry, which lasted for only one day.
There are still few Saudis who are skeptical that such a Saudization drive in the mobile market would succeed, after past attempts to provide openings in various sectors fell flat. When it came to the gold market, many of the gold shop owners complained that not many Saudis were patient enough to work long hours and in two shifts. Young Saudis, according to many newspaper reports, complained of long hours and the one day weekly off as deterrents to working in this market, while the expatriates, mostly Yemenis, worked longer hours and sometimes with no days off.
In the case of the halaga — the vegetable and the fruit market — we were revealed many reasons why it failed. But the main one was that when Saudis were given stalls to work in, they rented it to expat workers for a monthly fixed amount. Again the reason that was attributed to the failure of Saudization in this market is young Saudis’ reluctance of wanting to work for longer hours.
However, this latest move by the Ministry of Labor is a golden opportunity for many unemployed Saudis to roll up their sleeves and work. It is about time to teach our youth how stupid it is to look down on these jobs claiming that it is not up to their standard when they are unemployed and sitting at home doing nothing. We need to inject in the minds of these youth that any job, no matter how small or low paid, is a lot better than sitting at home idle.
A job, no matter how small it is, is the first step toward success. New opportunities and windows will open for hard working youth. Our youth need to learn that in order to be big, they would have to start small.
As I always say, I am against people who put the blame wholly on expat workers for controlling any market. There are those narrow-minded people who levy racist remarks against expat workers for controlling this or that market without realizing that they were recruited to fill the gap left by Saudis who did not want to work in these markets in the first place.
They are in the country on legal visa and operating in shops owned by Saudis who rather stay at home and earn easy money. Such people who make excuses for their failures need to shut up forever. Now they have the opportunity and a market, which will be fully Saudized, but are they ready to work?
If the mobile phones sector was Saudized, it will provide more than 20,000 jobs, according to a report by an expert. I urge serious Saudi youth to avail this golden opportunity to fill the gap and get away from being unemployed to being productive.
There is this general stereotyping that Saudi youth are less productive and do not want to work. This is wrong and I hope the young Saudis who will join this market will prove all the detractors wrong. I have seen Saudis working in shops and in restaurants and some have opened their own small businesses and started to work diligently. I salute our youth who realized that the real shame is in looking down at honest jobs and people working in small jobs.
It is within the country's right to look after its interest and the interest of its people. With the rising percentage of unemployment among youth and university and college graduates, this might be a solution even if it is a small one. Officials on the other hand need to study the elements of why other Saudization drives failed and work on solving it.
We should instill in our children our history in which our forefathers faced and overcame adversity when times were harsh and opportunities scarce. They should be given their examples of how they rose to the occasion and took responsibility and built their lives with humility and hard work. It is that foundation laid with their perspiration and ideas that has enabled the later generation to have an easy ride during good times.
This Saudization drive is critical in more than one way as it could be a precedence of many to come if it succeeds and becomes an example for other Saudization drives in the future, or will be yet another example of a failed initiative for the want of drive in the Saudi youth and be an illustration of permanent failure thereby stymieing any initiative for any future drive.
— The writer can be reached at mahmad@saudigazette.com.sa. Twitter: @anajeddawi_eng
