American-Saudi Cooperation in Meeting Human Resource Deficiencies in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is emerging as a country of significant wealth and economic power. Its policy is geared towards progress and development at home, and friendship and cooperation abroad. This has given Saudi Arabia International stature and has drawn the world\u27s attention to the country and its institutions. Any rational analysis of world economics today must necessarily take the Saudi presence into consideration. Saudi Arabia relies on its oil revenues to diversify its economy, to raise the gross national product, and to build the infrastructure needed for development. The state budgets will induce rapid growth in all sectors of the economy, and the fiscal policy of the new budget reflects the determination of the government to continue translating the major economic and social targets of the second five-year development plan into achievements and to stress the elimination of bottlenecks in order to keep inflation within a controllable level. With the realization that oil is a non-renewable resource, the country has launched a massive program of accelerating the growth of industrial and agricultural sectors, and building a supporting infrastructure. The gap between developed and developing countries is expanding in a way that is threatening the fate of the world. The developing countries, therefore, have no alternative but to mobilize all energies and potentials for self-development within the limits of available resources. They will try to implement development plans in great leaps within a very short period of time. The Kingdom, while possessing the financial means to achieve progress, is trying to race time and achieve within a few years what took other countries generations to accomplish. But several serious disabilities still hinder her rapid economic development. The most pressing problem is the shortage of adequately trained manpower for projects envisaged in the development plan followed by the scarcity of water. But now there are some economic indications which will have significant influence on the direction of the development of the country. These are: 1. ARAMCO ownership acquisition. 2. Minerals in the next 3 years will constitute a portion of the Kingdom\u27s national income. 3. The private sector will occupy an important position in all development programs of the Kingdom including construction, manufacture, agriculture, services, trade, finance, and transport. 4. Great emphasis laid on the selection, transfer, and management of existing foreign technology. 5. Progress to achieve the targets set forth development of the Kingdom\u27s statistics. 6. Great concern is given to the Jubail and Hanbu region as an industrial complex. 7. Solving the problem of water shortage. 8. Expansion of vocational training system: the government put great emphasis on expanding the vocational training system. About 27,000 persons, at levels of skill, are being trained annually since 1980. A widening variety of specialized training will be provided by government agencies and educational institutions. 9. Saudization of foreign banks: Saudi Arabia has transformed branches of foreign banks operating in the Kingdom into Saudi banks in accordance with Saudi\u27s banking regulations. The Saudi private sector is holding a major portion of the bank\u27s equity while the foreign banks maintain the remaining portion after the conversion. This enables the government to control money supply within the country. Human resources development has been a major theme in all four of the five-year plans. The importation, deployment, distribution,education and training of both Saudi and expatriate labor in Saudi Arabia is in many ways the central issue around which all Saudi development flows. It is, therefore, to this theme - and to the contribution of American universities and American corporations to the implementation of this theme that this proposed thesis will be devoted. This proposed thesis will be discussed as follows: 1. Discuss Saudi Arabian economic development as outlined in the government\u27s four, five, year plans with special emphasis on the Kingdom\u27s commitment to education and manpower development. 2. United States involvement in Saudi\u27s economic development with special emphasis on contractual agreements given the basic theme of thesis, primary emphasis is placed on contracted services for education and training. 3. Discussion of matches and mismatches existing between Saudi government planning, American corporate needs, and Saudi students\u27 desires. 4. I present my recommendations for the.future, based primarily on a joint venture of international cooperation: A Case Study of Saudi American Bank