Would Saudi Arabia be the future promising land for entertainment?

Saudi Arabia, which hosted a series of path-breaking concerts last month, is preparing to host a regional forum on cinema in April. The message is clear: The kingdom is opening up entertainment options for its citizens that even two years ago would have been unthinkable. Not just that, these projects could help develop propel entertainment as an economic factor in its own right. And in the short term, it will help reduce the country’s unemployment rates.The sector “has a very low barrier of entry, and (most) job opportunities in entertainment doesn’t require sophisticated qualifications,” said Saudi economist Hussain Shobakshi. “The entertainment sector has the ability to hire big numbers and swiftly. Fresh graduates can be hired, students can apply as part-timers. Cinemas, concerts and cultural festivals hire people in big numbers and even those with minimum qualifications.” Unemployment among Saudis reached 12.8 per cent in the third quarter of 2018, according to media reports. The Saudi deputy minister of labour, in charge of labour policies, Ahmad Kattan, was quoted as saying the kingdom plans to create 1.2 million jobs by 2022 by focusing on the retail sector and reduce unemployment to 9 per cent. With the entertainment sector opening up, “you create an internal organic industry,” said Shobakshi. “There are three buzz words in Saudi Arabia: upbringing, education and culture.”