RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Public Transport Authority has announced the launch of an initiative to localize the Kingdom"s freight brokerage offices, Argaam reported. The initiative is being carried out in collaboration with several other entities, including the Saudi Logistics Academy, as the Kingdom steadily progresses in its efforts to create more jobs in line with Vision 2030. Applicants to the scheme will be placed on a five-day course run by a specialized team, PTA stated on its official Twitter account. The Saudization initiative aims to motivate and empower Saudi youth in the labor market, ensuring that they are qualified through training by industry specialists, and backing qualifying local enterprises. While speaking at the Local Content Forum in Riyadh in September, Transport Minister Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser said that the transportation sector of the Kingdom is working to increase the proportion of Saudi nationals in all its services. “We are close to the percentage of full localization for the profession of co-pilot, and soon the full localization of pilots will be achieved,” said Al-Jasser. Last month, the PTA signed deals with several private sector firms to localize as many as 13,000 jobs for bus and truck drivers. The PTA cited the three main goals of the deals as backing private sector enterprises, developing national manpower, and elevating worker skill levels. The agreements, signed in collaboration with the Development Fund Human Resources, align with the Saudi Vision 2030 goal to reduce unemployment rates by increasing employment opportunities in the Kingdom. Across the board, authorities and ministries are also implementing Saudization initiatives. Professional roles in management, procurement and the food sector are earmarked to be among 11 new localization decisions before the end of 2022, the minister of human resources and social development has announced. Ahmad Al-Rajhi explained that the new localization decisions will also include roles in the drug sector, according to a statement. Speaking of the localization of sectors and professions, Al-Rajhi noted that these decisions have contributed to raising the number of Saudi workers in the private sector to over 2.12 million. Additionally, the decisions contributed in reducing the unemployment rate of Saudi citizens to 9.7 percent, as well as increasing the women’s economic participation rate to 35.6 percent.