'Risk averse' Saudis look to manufacturing (page 2 of 2)

'We can't expect it to rain talented people,' he said. 'We have to invest in them and train them.'

Without better training and education - which encourages both men and women into the workforce - it will be difficult to create the additional jobs the country needs. 'If we cannot take advantage on that, it will be a shame on us as a country,' said Dr Abdulrahman Al-Azzam, Country Senior Officer, Saudi Arabia at Alcatel Lucent.

Importantly though, a better educated workforce is more likely to develop and design products internally, rather than simply build those that have been designed elsewhere in the world.

Risk averse

Saudi Arabia is not seen as a country that takes risks on ideas that may either develop into great money-spinners or may simply crash and burn. A risk averse culture means it is difficult for people to develop ideas, be that those they have suggested to the company they work for or ones they are trying to build themselves.

'The region is drowning in liquidity but thirsty for venture capital,' said Kassem. 'The venture capital culture is severely lacking. It can feed ideas and bring those ideas into fruition.'

This was an issue in other regions, where entrepreneurs would struggle to get an idea off the ground and develop it into a fully fledged business. But in many parts of the world it is now increasingly easy for people to get venture funding to develop ideas.

In Saudi Arabia though, Kassem said people were 'more at ease sinking money into a property deal' than taking a chance on an idea. 'Perhaps it's the trader mentality. People cannot see the picture until it is painted,' he told AME Info.

He felt Saudi Arabia should play to its strengths when it came to VC funding. While the government wants to shift away from a reliance on oil and gas, at the same time it has great experience in the energy sector, and that experience can help spot a good idea and understand how to foster it into a business. 'It's the industry that has to encourage [entrepreneurs and ideas],' he said.

See also:
Manufacturing booms in Saudi Arabia
Peek inside a Flying Palace
Working With Islamic Finance