RIYADH, Jul 7 (Arab News): In a renewed move to cut reliance on foreign workers, the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) has trained 139,461 Saudis for employment in different areas.

The HRDF has “spent more than SR584 million on training and employing Saudis” during the first half of this year alone, said Adel Al-Salih, the organization’s acting director general.

Al-Salih, who gave an overview of HRDF’s training and employment programs that aim to create jobs for young Saudis in the private sector, said the fund has signed 1,174 agreements with private companies under an ambitious partnership plan.

These companies, he said, would provide training to unemployed Saudis and would in turn be supported by the HRDF with financial assistance and other government incentives.

He also urged private companies that have been authorized to implement training and employment programs to present their financial claims to the HRDF. The performance of these private companies, especially in terms of their competitiveness in running training programs and providing employment to Saudis, is regularly monitored by the HRDF.

“These kinds of programs will go a long way in reducing dependence on imported manpower and providing necessary skills to Saudis,” said an HRDF statement.

A large number of private sector companies have recently signed agreements with the HRDF to operate tailor-made programs to train Saudis in necessary skills. Bupa Arabia, the Kingdom’s leading health insurance company, has signed a joint partnership with the HRDF valued at more than SR2.6 million.

The goal of the Bupa-HRDF partnership is to recruit and train 94 male and female employees for various types of work within the company. In another instance, the Construction Products Holding Co. recently made a deal to recruit and train 490 young Saudis to be deployed in its factories and outlets all over the Kingdom. Several other companies have also evinced interest to join hands with the HRDF, said the press statement.

More than 982,000 work visas were issued for private establishments, 61,000 for the public sector and 496,000 for domestic workers, according to the statement. But, the overall rate of unemployment of Saudis has declined of late.

The statement said the low wage levels in several cases caused an influx of expatriate workers into the labor market. But, the HRDF has been trying to reverse the trend and it has become an important mechanism that supports the preparation and training of qualified Saudis, as well as finding them jobs. The fund’s efforts in this field is in conjunction with the efforts of the Ministry of Labor and the National System for Joint Training (NSJT) as well as other concerned organizations.

The HRDF has also launched the Maher Program under which 12,000 job seekers will be given professional training according to the requirements of the local labor market by 2012. This is a non-employment training program conducted by institutions that have achieved outstanding success in training and employment. This is in addition to a major training program being run by the HRDF for Saudis who are willing to start their own businesses.