Saudi Aramco plans to nationalize 90% of its workforce

In a recent speech, Mohammed Al Shammary, Vice President of Saudi Aramco, announced the Saudi oil giant’s plans to nationalize 90% of the company’s workforce by 2020. Saudi Aramco, in turn, expresses its support for Saudi Arabia, which in recent years has taken serious steps to nationalize local industries in order to combat the country’s unemployment rate.

The company has already launched a comprehensive localization program to develop services to help raise the level of local energy content to 90% by 2020

Thanks to its decision, Saudi Aramco will provide thousands of employment opportunities for nationals working in the energy sector. Ultimately, by nationalizing different sectors of activity, it is the whole of Saudi Arabia that hopes that this will lead to an increase in the contributions of small and medium-sized enterprises to the Kingdom’s gross national product (GDP).

Sectors that are nationalizing in Saudi Arabia

In recent months, Saudi Arabia has partially nationalized the retail sector previously dominated by expatriates or non-locals. In 2019, 440,000 nationals work in this sector, compared to 330,000 in 2018.

The entire public sector in Saudi Arabia is also moving towards the nationalization of its entities. In 2017, the Ministry of Public Service of the Kingdom ordered all government ministries and departments to terminate contracts with expatriate workers within three years, with Saudi nationals as the only replacement option.

More recently, the Kingdom has announced its intention to nationalize a large part of its agricultural industry.