Saudi Arabia plans to replace expatriate workers with locals

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia has planned to improve competence of local workers to replace the eight million expatriate workers in the country, local newspaper Okaz reported Saturday.

The report quoted a source from the Labor Ministry as saying that the government plans to offer training and higher salaries to attract locals to get jobs, especially the blue-collar ones.

"Those jobs could be taken by locals with higher salaries if they ignored social misconceptions about blue-collar workers," he said.

He added that the main challenge to replace foreigner workers with Saudis lies in the construction sector.