Business & Money | Tuesday 17 February, 2015 8:06 am |

The Ministry of Labor in coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry will coordinate as part of a joint strategy to deal with commercial fraud (tasattur), namely expatriates operating their own businesses in the name of Saudis as well as other irregularities in the labor market.

This was announced during a meeting held here recently. The new move will be implemented through a series of procedures, including joint inspection, identifying challenges and converting them into opportunities through exchange of information and better control to overcome the issue.
Both sides felt the need to update the existing system to check the phenomenon of commercial cover-up. They also decided to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and encourage entrepreneurs to take up commercial activities and not leave them to expatriates.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Labor Adel Fakeih and Minister Commerce and Industry Tawfiq Al-Rabiah.
They expressed satisfaction over their joint efforts to localize jobs through a mechanism of visa issuance for recruitment of seasonal workers with special reference to temporary work visa during the annual Haj season. Further, service centers will be established in the industrial areas.

The meeting underlined the commitment of the two ministries to strictly deal with their common problem, which will have a positive impact in terms of creating more job opportunities for the citizens. They also reviewed the Saudization drive and government efforts through the electronic system to track operational contracts, government maintenance and the number of Saudi workers. This includes the unified classification of contractors and the adoption of standards and certificates of competence in this sector.
The two ministries have agreed on an effective mechanism for the issuance of licenses for new companies. The sides discussed the plan to provide offices of Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) in the industrial cities to help enterprises and job seekers and support the employment of women in factories.