What is "saudization"

Saudization or Saudisation of the workforce—the replacement of foreign workers with Saudi nationals in the private sector—is the official national policy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. While many Saudis are employed by the government, there are not enough jobs for the growing number of youth. As of 2006 the private sector was largely dominated by expatriate workers from Southeast Asia and the Arab world.

The Saudi Government took the decision to reduce unemployment among native Saudis, under the slogan 'Let's Put the Saudi in Saudization'.

Companies which "fail to comply" with Saudization regulations have been warned that they "will not be awarded government contracts". While the "Saudi political elite" is agreed on the importance of Saudization, Saudi businesses have complained of its implementation and sought ways to avoid it.

Since 2005, the target Saudization rate has been set at 75% for the private sector, however in most sectors the actual rates are still much lower, because most of the Saudis were not interested to work in harder level they need desk jobs, which made the expatriates to work easily; and take part the major working area of Saudi Arabia.

In 2014 the Saudi Gazette reported that one of the targets of the kingdom's Ninth Development Plan (2010-2015) -- to "bring down the unemployment rate to 5.5 percent and revive the Saudization strategy"—had not been realized.