RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Economy and Planning has joined the World Economic Forum’s Jobs Consortium at the WEF annual meeting in Davos, as part of its efforts to develop the Kingdom’s labor force under Vision 2030.
The Jobs Consortium is a union of world-class leaders with the unilateral vision of developing job creation and job transitions to reach a more promising and inclusive future in terms of employment, according to a press release.
"People are the key driver of any successful transformation and the sustainability of its outcome. Everything we do is focused on empowering our people by equipping them with the evolving set of tools and skills, and creating the opportunities for them to capture, grow, and flourish," said the Minister of Economy and Planning Faisal bin Fadhil Al-Ibrahim at the WEF.
The new membership supports Saudi Vision 2030 “and its commitment to building a thriving, vibrant economy that creates new sectors, hundreds of thousands of new jobs, and cross-cutting innovation,” stated the press release.
Al-Ibrahim further mentioned a central aspect of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 in the WEF is to limit the Kingdom’s oil dependence and produce new industries thus luring talent into the country.
“Moving forward, we expect the new sectors that did not exist in the past — we have sports, entertainment, culture and tourism — to play a big role,” Al-Ibrahim said to Reuters on the sidelines of the WEF, noting that the Kingdom planned to generate high-quality jobs faster than the rate at which people enter the labor market.
He noted that the Saudi female participation in the labor force reached 37 percent exceeding the initial target of 30 percent by 2030, while the male unemployment rate hit a record low of 4.8 percent.
“We reached 2.2 million private sector jobs this year, which is a record high.”
Saudi Arabia’s execution in the esports industry illustrated the reaping of what has been sown by the Kingdom’s intended diversification efforts in that industry.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled the National Gaming and Esports Strategy last September, revealing its aims to produce more than 30 competitive games in the Kingdom’s studios and become one of the top three countries containing the highest number of professional esports players.
The strategy marked the start of a new era towards leading the sector and making the country a global hub for the gaming industry by 2030, according to the state news agency SPA.
Raising the quality of life by improving players’ experience, providing new entertainment opportunities, and achieving an economic impact by contributing to the GDP by about 50 billion riyals are the strategy’s three main objectives.
SPA’s report also suggests that this will lead to the creation of 39,000 new job opportunities by 2030.
