ABU DHABI Ñ Saudi Arabia has failed to keep up with the economic
growth of most of its Gulf Cooperation Council allies.
Analysts said the low Saudi performance from 1995 to 2000 was attributed
to Riyad's huge domestic debt as well as its rapid population increase.
Saudi Arabia controls a quarter of the world's proven oil wealth.
The Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund said per capita income in Saudi
Arabia increased by $1,000 in the last half of the 1990s. Saudi per capital
income was reported at $7,750 in 2000. This was among the lowest in the GCC.
In contrast, per capita income in the United Arab Emirates soared by
nearly 20 percent from 1995 to 2000. Income rose from $17,500 in 1995 to
$21,500 in 2000 and is set to exceed $23,000 this year.
Per capita income in Qatar rose from $22,000 in 1995 to $29,000. The
figure is the highest in the Arab world.
Kuwait's per capita income also surged by around 20 percent to nearly
$16,600. In Oman, the report recorded a 26 percent growth in income to
$8,200.
Outside of the Gulf region, Egypt was the only country to report
significant growth between 1995 and 2000. The report said per capita income
rose by 50 percent to $1,515 in 2000 from $1,050 in 1995.
A report by the International Monetary Fund warned of a slowdown in the
Middle East because of depressed activity in oil exporting countries. The
report said growth in oil exporting countries will drop from five percent in
2001 to 3.4 percent this year.
Meanwhile, Britain's largest defense contractor has been accused in
a class action suit of
violating labor laws in Saudi Arabia.
In what was termed a class action suit, 497 Saudi employees charged in a
Saudi labor court on Monday that BAe Systems was forcing them to sign an
annual contract that they said violates Saudi law. The contract allows BAe
the right to reduce salaries for Saudi employees in 2003.
BAe is the prime contractor of the Al Yamama, the estimated $8 billion
project to sell British aircraft and other systems to the kingdom. The
company has been operating in Saudi Arabia for about 30 years.
In the suit, the Saudi employees said BAe has forced all local staffers
to sign a contract that slashes their salaries and revises other terms of
their employment. The employees have complained in a suit that BAE presented
the one-year contract last September and threatened anyone who refuses to
sign with dismissal.
Already, the employees said, a Saudi national who refused to sign the
contract has been fired by BAe Systems. A Saudi labor court in Dammam, which
is hearing the case, adjourned until Aug. 20.
"It is a warning sign for all Saudi employees of the company in Riyad,
Dhahran and Tabuk," Yahya Al Fifi, a Saudi national who said he was fired by
BAe, said.
BAe has not formally responded to the suit but industry sources said the
company has been trying to dismiss up to 200 Saudi workers deemed redundant
and reduce the salaries of others in an effort to save money. The company
has acknowledged that non-Saudi workers are not being threatened with a
salary decrease.
Industry sources said nearly 70 percent of workers in Saudi Arabia are
foreigners and they often receive far less than Saudi nationals who do the
same job. The sources said many Saudis hired for the Al Yamama do not
actually work, but were placed on the payroll because of their connections
to the royal family or government.
The attorney representing those in the class action suit, Jamal Al
Muzein, disputed the assertion and said Australian and British employees of
BAe obtain better salaries and benefits than their Saudi counterparts.
More than 2,500 Saudi nationals work for BAe, which in May announced an
acceleration of its training program. Many of the nationals were said to
have been employed as part of the Al Yamama project, which is winding down.
The suit charges that BAe violated as many as seven Saudi laws with the
new contract. They said Saudi law stipulates that the conditions of Saudi
employees cannot be worsened unilaterally and that Saudis have priority over
expatriates for jobs in the kingdom.
Last month, a non-Saudi BAe employee came under light arms fire at a
company facility in the kingdom. The employee was not injured.
