By Javid Hassan
If there is low tide on the employment front in India leading to retrenchments and layoffs, there is high tide in Saudi Arabia, where tens of thousands of job opportunities await professionals in various fields. These include the construction, petrochemical, IT, education and manpower training as well as hospitality industries, besides oil and gas, industrial, automobile and water desalination /wastewater treatment sectors.
The driving force behind this engine of growth is the multi-billion dollar King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) now under construction at Rabigh, near Jeddah, as well as the expansion of Jubail Industrial City (second phase) in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province. Together, they have created a huge demand for skilled manpower in those sectors. While preference is given obviously to Saudi nationals, there is still enough room for employing foreign manpower.
Indian professionals are sought after in Saudi Arabia, since they are hard-working and law-abiding. Besides, they are available at much lower salaries compared to those from the West. However, they could enhance their market value several fold if they learn Arabic, the medium of communication in the public and private sectors.
If Europeans are learning four or five languages, including Arabic, there is no reason why Indians should lag behind. Just as Urdu is widely spoken by non-Muslims in India, similarly Arabic is the lingua franca of Christians in the Arab world. So those who tend to identify language with a particular religion should discard such notions in today’s global village.
No wonder, more than 100 foreign companies have expressed interest in investing in the Saudi real estate business, according to Blair Hagkull managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle for Middle East and North Africa, which has opened its offices in Riyadh and Jeddah. "A large clientele of investors from Malaysia, Asia, China, Singapore and North America is interested in the Kingdom's real estate business, since Saudi Arabia is the fastest growing market in the world," the executive said.
Such a high level of global interest is said to be due to the presence of a wide range of opportunities, as the present shortage of 500,000 houses in the Kingdom is expected to rise to one million by 2012. "The real estate markets are being driven by a combination of a large and growing economy and strong demographic fundamentals. The Saudi economy is by far the largest in the region and is well positioned to outperform others in the face of the current global economic downturn."
Blair indicates that one of the main drivers of both the economy and the real estate market is the size and rapid growth in population. "Saudi Arabia has been the world's fastest growing large country in terms of population over the past 10 years. As a result, it has a very young demographic profile with around 45 percent of the population currently aged below 20 years. This young age profile and the rapid rate of urbanization (growth of the major cities) have been the major demographic factors driving the real estate market."
Saudi Arabia also has the largest real estate market in the GCC with more commercial (office, retail and residential) floor space than all the other GCC states combined. The current stock of commercial space is planned to increase by more than 60 percent by 2012, with the residential sector also poised for significant growth.
It is in this context that one should evaluate the huge potential that KAEC represents, both in terms of business and job opportunities. Amr Abdullah Dabbagh, Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), the nodal agency for investors, has disclosed that they have been able to attract investments worth over $34 billion within a short span.
Of these, hospitality projects at KAEC have so far netted over $21 billion in investments, plastic industries $ 8.53 billion, knowledge-based industries around $6.5 billion, educational and training projects $800 million. Emaar E.C., the main contractor from the UAE executing this project, has already deployed a strong workforce, of which around 64 percent are Saudis and the rest expatriates.
More than 7,000 professionals are currently employed on site with the number expected to increase to 10,000 in a year. KAEC has the potential to create one million jobs and will be home to two million people on the completion of the project in five years. NRIs should take note of these promising developments and prepare accordingly.
More job opportunities will open up in Jubail, eastern Saudi Arabia, where King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz launched 29 industrial and development projects worth over $ 18 billion in Jubail early this year. These new projects belong to the Royal Commission of Jubail and Yanbu, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and the private sector. The Royal Commission is the government agency for developing the two industrial townships in eastern and western provinces of the Kingdom, while SABIC is a world class petrochemical giant.
Four of the Royal Commission projects involve a total investment of over $1.8 billion. They include development of Matrafiya residential area at a cost of $64 million (designed to accommodate 11,000 people), construction of the University City at a cost of $ 133 million (to accommodate 18,000 students). The second phase of Jalmouda district project will include 10,200 housing units. There is a great employment potential for engineers, architects and technicians, which Saudi manpower can meet only on a limited scale.
SABIC’s multi-billion dollar projects launched by the king were: expansion of National Industrial Gas Company, expansion of Saudi Methanol Company, Saudi Iron & Steel Co., Jubail United Petrochemical Company’s Linear Alpha Olefins plant and expansion of National Gas Company’s project at a cost of $ 340 million.
The king also launched private sector projects involving a total investment of more than $13 billion. They include Saudi Polymers Company (Chevron-Philips) and expansion of Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery (Sasref) in addition to nine other projects worth $1.92 billion and a slew of multi-billion dollar petrochemical projects.
Saudi Arabia is also expected to invest $119 billion in energy infrastructure projects from 2007 to 2009, according to studies commissioned by the private sector. Investments in the refining sector are projected to grow substantially, said SAS, a company which specializes in business intelligence and analytical software and services.
As burgeoning energy requirements continue to mirror the current pace of economic development across the region, national oil companies (NOCs) including upstream, midstream and downstream operations in the Middle East are facing challenges such as ageing infrastructure and equipment, lack of efficiency in refinery processes and shortage of skilled manpower.
The hotel sector, it is pointed out, will benefit from this trajectory of growth as the visitors will be drawn from three categories—those coming for business, domestic tourists, and outsiders coming for Haj and Umrah, since the Saudi government has liberalized Umrah tours, which also include the option to visit other parts of the Kingdom.
To this end, permission has to be obtained in advance through authorized Haj and Umrah tour operators. Coupled with an increase in business travel, this has led to a shortage in quality hotel room supply. These developments augur well for the future of the employment market in Saudi Arabia, which will continue to recruit overseas manpower.
There is one other area that should be of interest to the Indian skilled manpower, especially from the automobile sector, which is going in reverse gear in our country. The Saudi market, awash in petrodollars, has bucked this trend. For instance, Mohamed A. Alhamrani Intertrade Company, the sole distributors of Tata vehicles in the Kingdom, recently launched the new generation pick-up truck from Tata “The Xenon” in the Saudi market.
The Xenon, a powerful pick-up truck with 3L Dicor diesel engine, offers the latest in diesel engine technology for better performance and power, making it a perfect vehicle for business or for leisure, according to the Saudi dealer, which is eyeing the expanding travel and tourism market.
All these projects will involve a strong IT component. Besides, it is worth noting that all the new players entering the market would like to have their own websites, for which they will need web designers and technical writers to place data on the website that makes technical information intelligible to the common man.
In fact, there is a shortage of technical writers not only in Saudi Arabia but even in India, where there are reportedly 10,000 vacancies despite economic recession. The common factor in both the countries is lack of skilled manpower in that category. This and other issues will be discussed at the two-day annual conference at the Indian chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), a global organization of technical writers in Pune on Dec.12-13.
Thus, employment opportunities are immense if only one knows how to tap them. The starting point of this exercise can be at two levels. At the individual level, those aspiring for jobs in the Gulf should go through leading newspapers and specialized publications that regularly carry advertisements relating to overseas appointments. They can also register themselves with bona fide manpower recruitment agencies for receiving feedback from their applications.
At the governmental level, the labour ministry should organize a multi-sectoral delegation in coordination with the chamber of commerce and industry and the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. The embassy, on its part, could arrange business meetings at the chambers of commerce and industry in the three main cities of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammm. Hyderabad, well-known among Saudis since the time of the Nizam, has already carved out its market share out of the 1.6 million NRIs working there. This is the time to strike while the employment market is still hot.
[ Javid Hassan, HNN panel Editor for Bangalore, started a new weekly column from today onwards. This column will be published every Wednesday on Blog and republished/ linked on HNN news site on every Thursday. - EDITOR ]
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