Saudis Told to Become Entrepreneurs
RIYADH: A call has gone out to young Saudis to try and enter into business ventures for a better life, rather than remain content with lowly paid jobs in the private sector.
“More than 1.2 million Saudi male and female employees working in the private sector are being paid less than SR5,000 per month, said Mansour Al-Obaid, a member of the board of director of Leen for Building and Smart Cities. Addressing a forum for young businessmen, he wondered how the low-salaried people can live in costly cities like Riyadh.
Al-Obaid highlighted the difficulties he had faced during his business and career path and how he managed to overcome the hurdles.
He urged young Saudis to give priority to the business and investment world and cited the example of some 9 million expats working in the Saudi market whose money transfers to their countries hit SR240 billion last year.
Al-Obaid called on young Saudis to also focus on the issues of knowledge-based economy, which is today the focus of the whole world, through the exploitation of knowledge in serving personal and public economies. Simple ideas were developed into big projects, generating profits of millions of dollars, he said.
إعلان
Referring to smart cities, Al-Obaid said that they come in the form of smart complexes, buildings and projects. Smart cities in South Korea, Singapore, Tokyo, and Dubai first focussed on roads and streets by reducing accidents and everything related to management of roads, and “Saher” is just an integral part of that administration, he said.
Al-Obaid said that in addition to comfort and well-being, smart cities are meant to reduce material costs of benzene, power and save time by 50 percent.