Sheikh Ghassan spoke to at IIR's 2nd Annual Forum on Saudisation in February 2001. The event was a tremendous success with over 80 delegates in attendance from throughout the GCC. If you would like to receive the documentation from that event which includes presentations from the Sheikh and other leading industry professionals then just email us at documentation@iirgulf.com
Saudisation...
Ghassan Al Sulaiman is a man who speaks his mind. He addresses thorny issues which he believes are at the core of Saudi Arabia's emerging unemployment crisis. And he doesn't flinch from uncomfortable conclusions.
On Education: "Too much money into cement and too little into skills."
On Attitudes: "The work ethic of most Saudis is poor"
On Government Jobs: "The chances of being fired were one in a million."
He was speaking to Th-E News from Jeddah after his keynote address to IIR's 2nd Annual Forum on Saudisation in February 2001 - the process of building the Kingdom's national workforce and lessening dependence on expatriate labour.
As Board chairman of the Jeddah Training Centre - a subsidiary of the Chamber of Commerce - no-one is better placed than Sheikh Ghassan to explain Saudisation: "Put simply it is a scheme to replace expat workers with Saudi nationals to eventually achieve a ratio of 75 per cent Saudi and 25 per cent expat. We expect a five percent growth in the Saudi workforce each year.
"The Government does not want to replace the expat workforce entirely. Even in 2010 there will actually be more expat workers than there are now. But because of the rapid growth in the Saudi population, the ratio of expats to nationals will be lower. Saudisation is about redressing the balance - getting more of the national population into work."
But he has strong reservations. "I am in favour of Saudisation - but not in the way it is implemented. It is designed to force the private sector into hiring Saudis simply because they are Saudis. It should have been achieved by building the skills of the Saudi population to enable them to compete fairly and squarely for the best jobs. That should have been the long-term national strategy.
"The problem now is that we are reacting to a crisis with the lesser of two evils"
If we don't create jobs quickly there will be large-scale unemployment and all the social problems that it would bring. There is no social security system here. If someone is unemployed and has no-one to support him, there is no safety net. Therefore it is in the interests of everyone, including the expat population, to resolve this quickly.
"Work is critical to the social and moral fibre of the nation"
So how did a nation blessed with massive oil wealth fail to develop it's own people's talents?. "Bad planning", he answers instantly. "Not lack of investment. The highest budget we had next to Defence was Education. But we didn't use the money wisely. We channeled too much money into buildings and infrastructure and not enough into people. Too much into cement - and too little into teaching skills."
Have Gulf countries grown lazy, asks Th-E News, on the riches of oil?.
"There is a lot of truth in that", says Sheikh Ghassan. "The work ethic of Saudis and Gulf nationals in general is very poor. The last 30 years have had a negative impact in that sense. However there is a misconception that most Saudis are rich. Most are not - and most of the unemployed are very poor. Unemployment has mushroomed over the past two years and that has changed things dramatically.
"Until two or three years ago, jobs were very easy to find. Any Saudi who wanted to work in a Government Department could find a job. And the chances of ever being fired from that job were a million to one. So it was the ability to find and keep a job, rather than lots of money in the bank, that gave Saudis security. But now the Government's coffers are empty. They can no longer support large numbers of jobs in the public sector. Most of the Government's budget was spent on paying people's wages. And it was no secret that many Government agencies could cut their workforce by 50 percent without any ill-effect.
"But the oil riches that came to the Gulf also put the population in a different mindset than existed before. Many Saudis and Gulf nationals refuse to handle certain jobs - in the service sector for example. There is this arrogance, particularly among the young, that certain jobs are not suitable for a Saudi or an Emirati. They forget that 30 or 40 years ago, these jobs were done by nationals.
"You have a whole new generation around now with a mindset that is wrong - and everyone knows it is wrong. It will take a long time to change that mindset - but we must do it. We must create a pride in work - a pride in the job".
But Sheikh Ghassan does see encouraging signs too. "Many Saudis, when put in the right environment, work very hard and to great effect. An excellent example is the workforce of ARAMCO which has a strong motivational culture. That's the culture we need to develop nationally."
But that takes time and jobs are needed quickly. "I think I'm right in saying that 50 per cent of Saudis are 18 or younger - and our population growth is among the highest in the world. This puts intense pressure on the economy to find jobs for these future workers. Saudisation is not the whole answer or even the long-term answer. It is a short-term measure to tackle a crisis situation. The real answers lie in education; in training; in job creation; in planning for the long-term. There is a strong need to look at the big picture."
Sheikh Ghassan believes that Saudisation needs to be handled with a deft touch and not a heavy hand. "That's absolutely essential. You see, there's a Catch 22 to all this. Job creation will not occur if Saudi companies are not prospering. And one of the things that will prevent Saudi companies from prospering is Saudisation. If you force companies to hire people on the grounds of nationality rather than ability, that will be reflected in their performance. That is what will happen if Saudisation is enforced too rigidly. It must be handled like a precision tool - not a blunt instrument".
Sheikh Ghassan spoke to at IIR's 2nd Annual Forum on Saudisation in February 2001. The event was a tremendous success with over 80 delegates in attendance from throughout the GCC. If you would like to receive the documentation from that event which includes presentations from the Sheikh and other leading industry professionals then just email us at documentation@iirgulf.com
Investments in development like Yanbu and Jubail are such a stimulous.
Imagine _ Inspite of the oil revenues Saudi Arabia could have turned into another chaotic mess like some of those countries in Africa that have terrific natural resources. Saudi success has been about their leadership, Islam and friendship with regular America businessmen as opposed to US government.