In a news that will probably sadden aspiring OFWs hoping to work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, authorities from the country have announced that they are planning to decrease reliance on foreign workers.
The plan is to focus more on hiring highly-technical workers and closely monitoring existing investments.
Speaking about the subject, finance minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf confirmed “The Kingdom will now be more selective in hiring foreign workers.” Al-Assaf also added that KSA has made huge progress in training and absorbing qualified Saudi-native workers and professionals in various sectors.
“Hence, the plan to reduce its reliance on overseas workers is quite logical,” he further explained. Moreover, he claimed that they are currently implementing needed steps to ensure completion of all “projects in the pipeline like Riyadh Metro and other mega transport projects.”
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Currently, Saudi Arabia has more than 10 million foreign workers coming from various countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and many others. On top of that, there are over 125,000 US and Western expats living and working in the Kingdom.
As of present time, Saudi Arabia does not implement income taxes for foreigners. However, this recent announcement by the Ministry of Finance is a clear indication that they are hoping to secure the Kingdom financially.
According to them they will review existing fees and fines and will probably introduce new ones in the near future.
Moreover, it has been said that there will be implemented reforms in terms of “revision of energy, water, and electricity prices gradually over the next five years, in order to achieve efficiency in energy use, conserve natural resources, stop waste and irrational use.”
“These measures will offshoot losses as Saudi Arabia increased its military and security spending in 2015 by $5.3 billion,” clarified Economy and Planning Minister Adel Fakeih.
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