Saudi Arabia to cut expatriate population

Saudi Arabia has forged a long-term plan to cut its expatriate population to ensure jobs for its citizens and tackle festering unemployment which exceeded 10 per cent at the end of 2010, newspapers reported on Saturday.

The plan stipulates that foreigners must not exceed 20 per cent of the total population and this means that a large number of them will have to leave the Gulf kingdom as they already account for more than 30 per cent. Saudi Labour Minister Adel Faqih disclosed the plan following talks in Abu Dhabi this week by labour ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.“The plan targets a ceiling of 20 per cent for foreigners in the kingdom in a bid to safeguard the demographic structure,” 'Alikhbariya' daily said.

Its figures showed expatriates, most of whom are employed in the private sector, totalled around 8.4 million in mid 2010, nearly 31 per cent of the country’s overall population of nearly 31 million.“The plan targets long-term foreign labour as it excludes expatriate workers who are in the Kingdom for a definite work contract associated with a project.”

Despite Riyadh’s efforts to ease reliance on foreign labour, expatriates in the world’s dominant oil exporter have increased by over two million in the past six years, according to the Saudi economy and planning ministry.Its figures showed the country’s population has grown by at least two per cent annually over the past decade, sharply above the world’s average.The rapid growth has allied with heavy reliance on cheaper foreign labour to aggravate its unemployment problem as its economy has recorded slow or negative growth in some years given its dependence on volatile oil sales.

Saudi Arabia has just launched its most aggressive job nationalization drive to find work for at least 500,000 unemployed Saudis after previous initiatives failed to produce results. The drive includes incentives to private sector firms employing more Saudis and heavy penalties for those failing to comply.

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