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Mass demonstrations in Yemen demand president step down

Arab holdings of US bonds put at $470bn

600 charged; arrests rise to 1,700 in deadly British riots

Federer out; Djokovic, Berdych advance

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33MIDDLE EAST ECONOMYINTERNATIONAL SPORTS

P6 P11P10 P15

Muharram 1433: Employment mobility comes into effect

Muharram 1433: Red entities’ renewal of work permits stops

Rabie II 1433: Yellow entities’ renewal of work permits stops

Muharram 1433: Labor Ministry starts paying ‘Hafiz’ support to job seekers

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IMPORTANT DATES

US wants worldto stop buyingoil from SyriaMore protesters killed on‘Day of Not Kneeling’

REUTERS

AMMAN: Syrian forces shot dead 13 protesters on Friday, the “Day of Not Kneeling,” as tens of thou-sands demanded the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

Defiant protest marches unfold-ed across the country despite a military crackdown that has trig-gered sanctions and condemna-tion abroad.

These included protests in the cities of Hama and Deir Al-Zour, both of which have been stormed in tank offensives launched by Assad during Ramadan.

The Local Coordination Committees activists said among the deaths were six in the Damascus suburbs of Saqba and Douma, two protesters killed in the commercial hub of Aleppo, and two in the northern province of Idlib on the Turkish border.

Residents said two people were also killed in Hama, just days after the army completed a week-long assault on the city which became a symbol of defiance to Assad’s rule after huge crowds gathered weekly to demand his overthrow.

“Go, Bashar!” protesters chant-ed in rallies held in the coastal cities of Latakia and Baniyas, as well as across the southern prov-ince of Deraa where the uprising against 41 years of Assad family domination first flared nearly five months ago.

In Deir Al-Zour, forces fired live ammunition at protesters coming out of a main mosque, killing one person according to the local coor-dination committees. A witness said a fire broke out in the mosque after security forces shot at it. “The whole neighborhood is echoing with the sound of bullets. Worshippers are running to take cover in alleyways,” he said by telephone.

Another resident said: “Assad wants to finish off the uprising before international pressure becomes too much for him. But people have gone out of almost every major mosque in Deir Al-Zour, meters away from tanks that occupy every main square and roundabout.” Syrian state

television said two members of the security forces were killed by gun-men in Douma, just outside Damascus.

Assad’s forces have intensified assaults on towns and cities across the country since the start of Ramadan nearly two weeks ago to try to subdue mounting dissent against the ruling family, despite threats of new US sanctions and calls from Turkey and fellow Arab states to end attacks on civilians.

More than 1,700 civilians in all have been killed in the military crackdown on protests against Assad, activists say.

Syria says 500 soldiers and police have died in the upheaval, which it blames on armed gangs and terrorists.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday Syria would be better off without Assad and called on nations that buy oil or sell arms to Syria to cut those ties.

“We urge those countries still buying Syrian oil or gas, those countries still sending Assad weap-ons, those countries whose politi-cal and economic support give him comfort in his brutality, to get on the right side of history,” she said.

Syria’s oil industry, with which the Assad has close links, generates most of the state’s hard currency from crude output of 380,000 bar-rels per day.

While Syria exports crude oil, its refinery capacity is not sufficient to meet domestic demand for fuel. Trading sources said Swiss oil traders Vitol and Trafigura agreed to supply state firm Sytrol with 60,000 tons of gasoline this week.

The global campaign group Avaaz urged European nations on Friday to impose immediate restrictions on purchases of Syrian oil to “dry up” funding of Assad’s security services. It said over 150,000 Avaaz members had signed a petition to that effect.

But there is little prospect of Western states putting teeth into the sanctions on Assad by target-ing Syria’s oil because of vested commercial interests against doing so.

Court acquits Ben Ali's security chief in escape caseTAREK AMARA | REUTERS

TUNIS: Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali’s feared former security chief was acquitted Friday on charges of forging passports to help relatives of the deposed Tunisian leader and his wife escape with cash and jewelry.

A Tunisian court dropped the case against Ali Seriati, but he remains in custody pending more serious charges of trying to sow strife in the wake of the revolu-tion that sparked the “Arab

Spring” protests that spread across the region.

In the same session, the court sentenced 23 relatives of Ben Ali and his wife, Leila Trabelsi, to jail terms ranging between four months and six years. Leila Trabelsi was sentenced to six years in absentia and Ben Ali’s powerful son-in-law Sakher Materi was sentenced to four years in absentia.

“These verdicts are disappoint-ing,” said Abdelmajid, a Tunisian man who came to watch the sen-

tencing. “Is it possible that some of the Trabelsi get just four months or a year? Why don’t they just release them too?”

The court released from custo-dy on Friday the former Finance Minister Mohammed Rechid Kchich, though corruption charg-es against him have not been dropped.

His release comes on the heels of the release of the reviled for-mer justice minister, who also still faces charges.

Analysts and politicians say

Ben Ali’s former allies are still in positions of power and are work-ing behind the scenes to save their friends, protect their inter-ests and roll back the gains Tunisians have made since Ben Ali fled the country.

Seriati was considered close to the Tunisian leader and many Tunisians accuse him of orches-trating a spree of violence after Ben Ali fled the country on Jan. 14 for Saudi Arabia. The relatives were captured at the airport as they prepared to flee with cash

and jewelry on the night Ben Ali left.

Seriati was arrested shortly after Ben Ali’s departure, and appealed for forgiveness in court on Wednesday. “I ask the Tunisian people to forgive me. I am Tunisian and I love Tunisia,” he shouted at the end of the hearing.

“Even Seriati is innocent. So who are the criminals? The peo-ple who went on protests from Dec. 17 to Jan. 14? And they said it was a revolution,” wrote one Tunisian on Facebook.

USAID boss leaves Egypt as Cairo probes ‘protest funding’HAMZA HENDAWI | AP

CAIRO: The USAID director in Egypt has abruptly flown back to Washington after less than a year on the job, the first major casualty of a row between the two long-time allies over American funding for pro-democracy groups.

Jim Bever left his post Thursday, a day after the Obama administration chas-tised Egypt’s leaders for stoking anti-American sentiment during the country’s rocky transition to democracy. In the rare public rebuke, the US said it had noticed mounting attacks and criticism of US aid and motives.

US Embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said Bever was returning to Washington to take a “unique opportu-nity” as an instructor at the War College.

“We are proud of Jim’s service in Egypt and grateful for his steady leadership during the time of transition,” the spokeswoman said.

Bever has been at the center of a dis-pute over funding since March, when USAID — the American government organization that distributes interna-tional development aid — placed adver-tisements inviting nongovernmental groups in Egypt to apply for US funding. The ads attracted hundreds of applicants,

who lined up outside USAID offices in a quiet suburb south of Cairo. Over the next few months, the American aid orga-nization allocated millions of dollars to the groups.

This left the government seething. It insisted that the funding must go through official channels, and not directly to the groups. Those restrictions applied during the rule of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, whose government tightly con-trolled the process.

Last month, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Al-Assar, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, gave a speech in Washington and criticized the

United States for funding pro-democracy groups without submitting to Egyptian government supervision. He said it vio-lated Egyptian laws for funding nongov-ernmental organizations. “It is a matter of sovereignty,” he said.

Colton, The US Embassy spokeswom-an, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the US is not interfering in Egypt’s politics. “Egyptian groups that apply for and receive grants from the United States are engaged in activities that are politi-cally neutral. No funds are provided to political parties,” she said.

Egyptian authorities this week opened a formal investigation into the

funding issue, according to a judicial official involved in the process. “A list of the likely beneficiaries of American funding has been compiled and we will investigate them one by one,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Other generals on the ruling council have accused two key reform groups of following a “foreign agenda” and of receiving funding and training from abroad, claims that suggest plotting against the country with foreign help.

The activist groups April 6 and Kifaya fought back by lodging official com-plaints with the prosecutor’s office

against Maj. Gen. Hassan El-Roweini, the ruling council member who made the accusations. April 6 is also demanding an apology.

Kifaya and April 6, which both called for Mubarak’s ouster years before the uprising, are credited with key roles in organizing the protests that toppled the president. “This is all part of a military council plan to portray everyone protest-ing on the streets as paid by a foreign party,” said activist Mona Seif. “The council is trying to build a reputation for itself as the sole protector of the revolu-tion and the ultimate source of patrio-tism.”

‘Nitaqat is fair to all’Program to provide wage protection,multilingual hot line for guest workers

SOMAYYA JABARTI | ARAB NEWS

JEDDAH: Since its launch, Nitaqat has caused alarm in the employ-ment sector. Guest workers and corporate owners have been flood-ing labor offices with their queries. Concern has even spread to labor attaches in the Kingdom who must respond to the scores of questions posed to them by their worried nationals. What is Nitaqat? What is its impact on us as individuals, organizations, employed, unem-ployed, qualified and unqualified? How will Nitaqat achieve the much-needed differences in com-parison to earlier Saudization attempts? Will it be able to accom-modate all industries? Just how plausible is Nitaqat? Looking for answers, Arab News met with Minister of Labor Adel Fakeih at his office, Thursday afternoon. During the meeting the amiable minister highlighted various aspects of the program. Here is the interview.

What is Nitaqat?Nitaqat (Ranges) is a program designed by the Ministry of Labor to boost the nationalization of pri-vate sector jobs. This direct inter-vention initiative aims to deliver quick results and give Saudi nationals a better standing in the

labor market. The program evalu-ates private sector establishments based on the percentage of its Saudi work force and subsequently gives them codes: Red, Yellow, Green and Premium. Depending on the code such entities will either receive incentives — in the form of new services and facilities — or be deprived from ministry services and face punitive mea-sures. Previous nationalization programs — dubbed “Saudization” — required all sec-tors to have a blanket quota of 30 percent Saudis, although only a third was achieved after many years of implementation. The new Nitaqat system, in contrast, is more dynamic and derives its nationalization quotas from the actual performance of private businesses that varies according to their line of business as well as the size of work force.

To make such quotas realistic as well as practical the ministry seg-mented the labor market into 41 commercial activities and further categorized companies into five sizes — according to work-force size from very small (0-9 employ-ees) to giant (3,000+ employees). It is worth noting that very small businesses (0-9 employees) are exempted from the Nitaqat pro-gram so this leaves us with a new

164 different nationalization quo-tas for business entities (41 activity x 4 sizes). The program was designed so that 50 percent of the companies in any of the 164 clas-sifications — i.e. entities that share similar size and similar type of economic activity — are in the Green and Premium zones.

What kind of incentives and restrictions will companies face once the program goes on full gear?Green and Premium companies will be able to hire from any part of the world, get new visas with open professions, and change pro-fessions of workers even to restrict-ed categories, except jobs such as employment officials, reception-ists, government liaison officials, treasury staff, and security officers. Premium and Green companies will be also allowed to recruit employees of Red and Yellow zones; and to transfer their visas without their employers' consent. Yellow companies will not be able to apply for new visas, visa trans-fers or change of workers profes-sions starting Sept. 10. However, Yellow companies will be allowed to renew their workers’ work per-mits provided they haven’t com-pleted more than six years in the Kingdom.

Labor Minister Adel Fakeih makes a point during the interview. (AN photo by Khidr Al-Zahrani)

Red companies will be deprived from basic ministry services such as renewal of employees’ working permits, change of profession, transfer of visas, issuance of new visas and opening files for new business branches. However, Red zone companies will be allowed to renew the work permits of their workers until Nov. 27, 2011, when the Nitaqat program will be fully implemented. Both Yellow and Red companies will in time lose con-trol over their workers who will be allowed to seek employment at companies in the higher Green and Premium categories.

Which phase of Nitaqat are we in now?Starting from June until September

all private companies were asked to update their employees’ infor-mation both at the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) and the Ministry of Interior for the calculation of their nation-al and foreign workers respective-ly. The period could also be uti-lized by Red and Yellow entities to hire more Saudis and increase their nationalization levels. The Ministry of Labor has also allowed all private sector entities to rectify their workers' professions. The ministry provides periodic infor-mation and counseling to compa-nies on the Nitaqat website (www.emol.gov.sa) to assist companies in conforming to the program’s guidelines.

(Continued on Page 4)

Saturday, August 13, 2011 kingdom4

30 30 30 30

10 - 29 15 - 29 15 - 29 15 - 29

5 - 9 7 - 14 7 - 14 7 - 14

0 - 4 0 - 6 0 - 6 0 - 6

SMALL10 - 49

employees

MEDIUM50 - 499 employees

BIG500 - 2999

employees

GIANT3000 +

employees

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS

Source: Ministry of Labor. (The required percentages of Saudization in the four colored codes)

‘Nitaqat is fair to all’(Continued From Page One)

We’ve noted that the website is only in Arabic. Is there any inten-tion of making it bilingual? Yes, someone is working on making an English version and hopefully in less than 3 months it will be up and running.

Why did the Labor Ministry choose to launch the program now?The drive to nationalize private sector jobs is not a new measure in the labor market. The ministry launched its nationalization programs in the mid 1990s. Saudi Arabia has a young population and this exerts pressure on the labor market due to the increased numbers of young Saudis coming into working age. Unemployment is a seri-ous issue with diverse negative impli-cations that could affect the country’s socioeconomic stability.

How will Nitaqat affect the lives of expatriates in the Kingdom?The Ministry of Labor recognizes and appreciates the role of guest workers in the development of the Kingdom. We understand that the new program will have direct and indirect effects not only on the guest workers inside the Kingdom but also on labor mar-kets of all countries that send workers to Saudi Arabia.

Nitaqat is not designed to threaten the livelihood of guest workers; how-ever, the ministry understands the cautionary perception, which many guest workers might have of the pro-gram. We believe the program is fair to all stakeholders, including guest workers. Furthermore, foreign work-ers can play an important role in making their current companies more stable if they start encouraging their employers in recruiting more Saudis. There will be certain change of employment preferences following the implementation of Nitaqat and some sectors will be affected by the program more than others, but even if we provide jobs for all unemployed Saudis, the private sector will still be in need of millions of guest workers.

Nitaqat’s noncompliant businesses, i.e. Red or Yellow private enterprises, are subject to restrictions including the inability to renew work permits for their workers. This does not mean that their employees will necessarily have to leave the Kingdom; on the contrary Nitaqat offers workers at Red and Yellow zone companies’ greater job mobility by allowing them to seek employment with other businesses provided that these potential employ-ers fall within the Green or Premium

zones. In addition job switching will take place without the consent of their initial “noncompliant” employer and through a regulated mechanism to safeguard the rights of workers and owners.

Nitaqat is said to enable employ-ment mobility for ‘guest workers’, what is the duration period for this? How long would an employee have to look for a job, apply and land a job?The ability of an employee to move from one organization to another will be effective only as of Muharram next year (December 2011) and we’re cur-rently doing the final reviews of these detailed period and steps and relation-ships between when the visa expires, vs. when the work permit expires vs. when the residence permit expires, this aspect spans across the Labor Ministry and Interior Ministry. Details should be announced before the end of Ramadan. Additionally all employ-ees will not be asked to leave the country as long as their work permit is still valid. Second, we will stop renew-ing work permits for expats in Red entities as of 1st of Muharram 1433. So expats working for Red entities will not be able to renew after this date, so they have to find another Green entity or Premium if they wish to renew

their work permit by then. Last, for expats working in Yellow entities, they will not be able to renew after 1st of Rabie II (March 2012) so they have to find a Green entity or Premium by then if they wish to renew their work permits. Again, I am repeating, they will not be asked to leave after the above dates, so they can stay as long as their work permits are valid, but they will not be able to renew after above dates with their current non-compliant company.

How will Nitaqat work vis-à-vis the rising recruitment trends?Nitaqat is not designed to slam shut recruitment doors but rather to ratio-nalize the issuance of recruitment visas which has soared in the past years due to robust public sector spending on infrastructure projects and the subsequent expansion of the private sector. The ministry believes that there is an oversupply of labor in the market and that what people have come to term as “loose labor” is living proof that such rationalization steps should be taken. Nitaqat program encourages internal recruitment as an alternative, especially since inter-nal recruits usually have better work experience and more local knowledge compared to fresh recruits.

What are the new regulations that the ministry plans to announce to foreign labor?The ministry cares about, and protects the interest of, private sector workers whether they are local or foreign. While Nitaqat comes to cater for national labor, the ministry has new initiatives for guest workers in the pipeline. Before year’s end, the minis-try will announce a number of new regulations, programs and services for guest workers. This will include a new framework for recruitment agencies,

wage protection system, mandatory insurance policy for domestic labor, and emergency 24/7 multilingual hot lines for complaints.

The new recruitment agencies will handle the hiring of foreign workers and become responsible for providing a proper work environment, ensuring foreign workers’ financial well being, and rights. In parallel, the ministry is working to establish a direct hotline service in multiple languages to pro-vide information, assistance and help

to foreign labor. These two initiatives are of particular importance for domestic and low-skilled workers. A service offered to domestic labor in its first operational phase. The ministry is also developing an electronic system for wage protection. The new system will ensure that salaries and wages are duly paid, hence reducing potential labor disputes and disagreements.

How will Nitaqat affect the overall Saudi labor market?Nitaqat has the potential to introduce much-needed market adjustments to enhance the efficiency of the private sector. The program aims to increase the share of national work force in the private sector and amend the imbal-ances of the labor market’s work force ratio where national labor constitute only 10 percent of the private sector’s eight million workers. These levels are unacceptable especially since unem-ployment is estimated at 12 percent and tends to exponentially rise due to a young population and the gradual increase in the number of job seekers. Apart from increasing the number of national workers to economically sus-tainable levels, Nitaqat will have other implications on the local labor mar-ket such as accelerate women’s employment, training for job seekers, establishing minimum wage and cre-ating healthier work environments for employees.

How will the program deal with special cases?The program is dynamic and can be further developed and enhanced. The ministry officials have met with, and listed the concerns of the labor mar-ket’s stakeholders from the program’s design stage. The program has also taken social and humanitarian fac-tors into consideration, for example foreigners married to Saudi women as well as children of Saudi mother will be counted as a Saudi equivalent in the new job program. The ministry is currently reviewing other wider social considerations.

How will Nitaqat gain a wider public appeal from stakeholders?The objective of any program design is to offer creative and feasible solutions and to minimize glitches and problems and Nitaqat works according to these parameters. We are neither claiming that Nitaqat is the sole remedy for unemployment nor have we said that it is a rigid nonadjustable program. We hope to create a public consensus over the importance of job nationalization with job owners, workers, job seekers, media and other

government and nongovernmental bodies. We have to understand that investing in the future of Saudi youth pays back. Providing nationals with decent job opportunities means more demand on products and services which in turn leads to a robust economy.

Employers are discouraged from nationalizing their work force because they feel that labor regu-lations do not serve their inter-ests, regarding hiring and firing Saudis. So in regards to contrac-tual aspects and labor regula-tions, what modifications can employers look forward to? Will there be changes?Well, the labor law articles are being studied in depth. We’ve asked the chambers of commerce to give us all their concerns and to raise their points like the ones you’ve suggested i.e. the case of terminating Saudis and many other concerns that they had. We’ve asked the labor commit-tees representing employees’ views to see what their concerns are. Also other government committees were formed, headed by HRH Prince Naif, which led to recommendations which were then issued as part of a royal decree that was directed to us to review some articles — for example working hours, minimum wages. All of these topics are being currently reviewed in detailed sessions. I hope we’ll be able to finish our reviews soon. And then as you know these are not internal regulations in the minis-try, these are regulations at a country level so they would have to go through the proper due process.

What about organizations that cater to international clientele or international products where

international staffing is manda-tory? How do they fit in with Nitaqat such as international schools?I’d asked a Nitaqat committee to spe-cifically look into it. International schools have been given very low Saudization requirements: 10 percent for small schools (49 employees and below), and 15 percent for bigger schools. These percentages do not necessarily mean teachers! Schools could choose to have 100 percent expats teachers while hiring Saudis in other jobs to achieve the required Saudization such as accountants, etc. The international schools that belong to embassies by definition would need to be treated differently. The dynam-ics keep on evolving and changing that’s the promise of Nitaqat.

The beauty of Nitaqat is that it promises to be realistic, practical and fair. One of the comments shared in all the presentations I’ve made to the different chambers of commerce that previously we had 13 economic activ-ities for which there were only 4 or 5 regulations governing them. Now currently we’ve divided the job mar-ket into 41 economic activities, and each activity was divided into 5 cate-gories based on size leading us to 205 sub segments and for each one of these sub segments we have now 4 levels of regulations. So we moved from 3-4 to about 750. But that’s not the end of it. Those of you who work in particular industries which let’s say have very special characteristic that makes it very difficult to employ Saudis, collect your views with other people working in the same category, organize it through the chambers of commerce and submit it to the Labor Ministry. And we’ll probably create a new sub category for you and make new regulations for you.

In Arab News’ Thursday print edi-tion, a front page article “To Survive, Companies Hiring Unqualified Saudis” talks about Red and Yellow zoned companies rushing to modify their statuses by employing unqualified Saudis or by the ‘fictitious employment of Saudis.’ What’s your response to this?The headline here talks about unqualified Saudis and this is the best thing I heard because I really believe that the best way for Saudis to become qualified is for them to work. I don’t believe you have to have qualified Saudis first and then you have to employ them. The best qualification is experience, it is get-ting a job and being mentored and helped by some experienced person who knows the job so I’m not wor-ried about that. The thing that will minimize the so called fictitious Saudization is that now as of Muharram next year we will start paying ‘Hafiz’ support to job seekers, a welfare program approved by the king with an allowance of SR2,000 per month. So if you are a Saudi and the government will pay you SR2,000 until you get a job you will not ‘sell’ your name to an organiza-tion for a few hundred riyals just to fix their problem cause this will make you ineligible for ‘Hafiz.’ So this welfare program that will be running in parallel will work as a balancing act. It will make it more difficult to find those willing to sell their names. Most reasonable busi-ness people will not pay people SR2,500 or SR3,000 then have them stay at home. They will turn the unqualified person, he or she, to a qualified person through working. Well then, that’s good news.

Nitaqat program encourages internal recruitment as an

alternative, especially since internal recruits usually have better work experience and

more local knowledge compared to fresh recruits.

If you had in front of you employers, employees — residents and citizens and job seekers, what would you want to say to them as a main message for each category?Job seekers: My advice to them is don’t be too picky about your first job. What matters is that if you find a serious employer who is going to give you meaningful work, even if the sal-ary level is not good if you stick it out and work hard, you’re going to be making good of your time and soon-er or later you’re going to get your worth in the market. And we’re actu-ally supporting this advice by the public service announcement (PSA) where we’ll be showing via news, press, TV real life role models of those who accepted to start working for SR1,000-2,000 and now they’re mak-ing five or six times as much only few years later.

To those currently working my advice is let’s do our best, continue working harder to prove we’re getting our jobs because we’re worth it and not because we’re Saudis. We’re add-ing value.

To employers: I’d say many of us have made it. Nitaqat is based on a realistic assessment of the market we have no excuse not to be able to reach the Green zone because it has been achieved by 50 percent of your category, of your size, of your sub economic activity. It is a very realistic expectation and you should deliver.

To our guest workers: This is not meant as a program against you but you should understand that our duty first is to our own nationals. It makes no sense that a country employs six million foreign workers and its own nationals are searching for jobs. You don’t find this anywhere in the world. You have a role in Saudization too because if you work well in training Saudis, in attracting and retaining Saudis you’ll help your company move to Green, therefore you main-tain your ability to continue and renew your work permit. This strate-gy was designed so that all of us will work together, and synchronize ways to achieve a goal in which all of us become winners.