Business & Money | Monday 31 August, 2015 7:02 am |

Labor Minister Mufrej Al-Haqabani has launched a series of electronic projects and facilities provided to the private sector companies, the SPA reported on Sunday.

The projects and facilities include electronic visa issuance for the distinguished firms, which achieved the required Saudization rates, and e-recruitment portal and government approval gate whereby all the ministry’s services be shifted to e-based services away from the traditional procedures.
Al-Haqabani said in a statement that the services represent aspects of transparency to be followed by the ministry in a way that the distinguished company obtains services different from those obtained by ordinary firms.
The electronic visa issuance service for the distinguished firms is to give visa balance to medium green category firms, or higher, automatically.
These firms will also get government approvals in accordance with a set of regulations and conditions without need of scrutiny at the labor office in the context of facilities and support given to the sincere private sector companies.

The service will also allow appropriate number of visas immediately whereby the company could set up new activities or expand the existing ones as soon as they submit their applications to the ministry electronically.
He said the employment of Saudis makes the firm a distinct one and, thereby, qualify it to obtain premium services.
He said the ministry has worked to automate visa issuance through the government approval gate where the relevant authorities become the donor of visas, which will accelerate implementation of government projects that will be positively reflected on citizens.
The issuance of visas through the government approval gate will make recruitment of foreign workers a joint responsibility of the government and firms, he said.

On terms and conditions for the issuance of visas electronically, the minister said the firm should be in the medium green category or higher, their period of establishment should be more than six months, the number of required visas should not contribute to downgrade the firm below the medium green category, the firm should be committed to wage protection program, and the firm should be free from (negative) remarks of inspectors.