EVER since the local laundrette replaced its Asian workers with Saudis, his Parisian silk shirts have come back as nylon cast-offs, says a lawyer in Saudi Arabia. The new hire at his chemist, a bashful Saudi girl, shies from his request to spray colognes on his hand. He himself has hired four Saudi lawyers in order to comply with the kingdom’s drive to replace foreigners with Saudis. They are useless, he says.
“Labour pains,” tuts Ahmed Kattan, the deputy labour minister. As part of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s “Saudisation” efforts, Mr Kattan has slapped monthly levies on migrants (based on the size of their families) and the Saudis who hire them. He has also barred foreigners from 12 sectors of the economy, including baking and optometry. The scheme, he says, will reduce the kingdom’s dependence on about 8m predominantly unskilled foreigners, who far outnumber Saudi workers. He reckons this will cut Saudi Arabia’s jobless rate to 10% by 2022 (from around 13% today),...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa https://ift.tt/2JwEpKJ
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