RIYADH: The Saudi Arabian government has granted significant relief to the country’s industrial sector foreign workers by abolishing the expatriate levy, popularly known as iqama or work permit fee, for the licensed industrial establishments.
The decision was endorsed by the Council of Ministers during a session headed by Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, based on a recommendation presented by the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, Saudi media reported.
The policy change comes as Saudi Arabia continues to be a vital destination for foreign labor, particularly from Pakistan. In November alone, the Kingdom became Pakistan’s top source of remittances with overseas Pakistanis sending $753 million, ahead of the United Arab Emirates with $675 million.
From 2020 to 2024, an estimated 1.88 million Pakistani workers went to Saudi Arabia, up from 1.56 million in the 2015-2019 period, or by about 21 percent. With the signing of a major defense cooperation agreement in September, Islamabad is now eyeing doubling its annual manpower exports to the Kingdom to about one million workers a year.
Pakistani labor in Saudi Arabia has traditionally been concentrated within construction, related trades, healthcare, and hospitality, but the federal government is keen on broadening this footprint into additional sectors-a push that could align with the Kingdom’s expanding and increasingly high-tech industrial base.
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