His Excellency the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Human Resources Development Fund, Engineer Ahmed bin Suleiman Al-Rajhi, launched yesterday evening the new strategy and identity of the fund under the slogan "Partnership and Empowerment". The event was attended by the Governor of the National Development Fund, Steven Groff, and the Director of the Fund, Turki bin Abdullah Al-Juwayni.

During his speech at the ceremony, His Excellency emphasized the wise leadership's support and guidance for the development of human capital, sustainable employment, and stimulating the private sector to contribute to localization. He also highlighted the importance of enhancing partnerships with all relevant entities in training, employment, and empowerment of national cadres, increasing their competitiveness and efficiency in the labor market.

He stated that the new strategy of the fund will contribute to stimulating the private sector's economic participation, developing promising sectors, attracting more job-generating investments, improving training, empowerment, and guidance programs, and enhancing the alignment between supply and demand in the labor market.

His Excellency added that the ambitious vision led by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, along with a distinguished and passionate generation for work and entrepreneurship, and a private sector as a partner in national development, have contributed to shaping the main directions of the fund's strategy and building its targets and programs.

The Minister pointed out that by 2030, the Fund aims to directly contribute to employing 40% of the total demand for jobs in the Kingdom, which is approximately 3 million cumulative employment operations. To achieve this target, the Fund seeks to expand its reach by increasing its contribution to employment by 45% and raising the sustainability levels of those employed to over 50%, in accordance with the best international benchmarking standards.

He affirmed that the efforts of the Human Resources Development Fund are aligned with the labor market strategy, localization decisions, and associated policies, as well as economic efforts and initiatives aimed at developing human capital. These efforts have contributed to increasing the participation rate of Saudis in the workforce to 52.5% in 2022 and the participation rate of Saudi women to 37% in 2022. Additionally, the Fund's programs and initiatives have led to a growth of over 300% in recruitment operations between 2019 and 2022.

Following the speeches, the attendees witnessed a presentation on the new strategy partners of the fund, including aspects of cooperation between the fund and various sectors of the labor market, the fund's contributions to supporting localization, training, qualification, and empowerment programs for national talents, and its efforts to achieve job stability.

On his part, the Director of the Fund, Turki Al-Juwayni, stated: "We all take pride in the successes we have achieved together during the year 2022, where the Fund, by the grace of God, has contributed to supporting the employment of approximately 400,000 beneficiaries to work in private sector establishments, including about 217,000 Saudi female employees in all regions of the Kingdom. Additionally, about 1.5 million beneficiaries have accessed the Fund's services, exceeding the annual target for the same year."

He further added, "The Fund has directly supported nearly 138,000 establishments operating in vital sectors in all regions of the Kingdom, focusing on small, medium, and micro-enterprises, which represent 81% of its total contribution to employment through various Fund programs."

Al-Juwayni explained that the Fund has concluded 24 agreements and memoranda of cooperation with the public and private sectors to enhance training and employment operations for national cadres. The Fund has supported around 12,000 beneficiaries in covering training costs and provided training content to over 320,000 beneficiaries through e-learning. Moreover, the Fund's employer-based training program has benefited more than 48,000 beneficiaries, and its professional guidance program has reached 337,000 beneficiaries in 2022. The job matching program has benefited 609,000 beneficiaries, while the empowerment program has supported 128,000 beneficiaries from the most needy categories to enter the labor market.

He concluded by stating that the Fund has begun implementing a comprehensive digital transformation plan, which resulted in the Fund's digital transformation index jumping from 46% to 84.5% within one year, achieving the 41st rank out of 217 participating government entities.

In conclusion of the inauguration ceremony, the attendees witnessed a presentation on the launch of the new strategy and identity of the Fund, which included a review of the supportive efforts for this qualitative transformation, aiming to enhance the skills of national human resources, build a sustainable national workforce, and affirm the pivotal role played by the Fund within the human resources system, in coordination and integration with various stakeholders and employers.