In this file photo, Saudis look at the Mobile phone at the Riyadh exhibition centre in the Saudi capital.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry will issue new regulations to organize the mobile market in the Kingdom, local media reported. The move follows increasing complaints by consumers regarding mishandling and cheating in the mobile markets in Saudi Arabia, despite extensive security campaigns by law enforcement agencies in the past two years.

Sources close to the ministry said the new regulations involve setting a new specification system and imposing strong punitive measures against stores that sell poor quality or fake items.

The new measures aim to control a generally mismanaged market worth more than SR20 billion, with a 10 percent annual growth rate.

Abdullah Al-Otaibi, a local economist, said the current situation experienced by the telecommunication market in the Kingdom is only an extension of the chaos spreading in the sector as a whole.

“Telecommunication markets are a monopoly, which leads to plenty of manipulation in the sector,” Al-Otaibi said.

He said that the current situation is chaotic mainly because market players have realized how dependent consumers have become on mobile devices and how loose regulations are.

Although telecommunication markets offered thousands of job opportunities for Saudi citizens following government campaigns against violators, Saudis could not prove themselves in the sector. “They lack the experience, the business tools and suffer the dominance of foreign labor in the market,” Al-Otaibi argued.

He demanded that competent bodies support Saudi youth with loans and training prior to placing them in the market, where they sometimes land without any business experience.

Consumer affairs specialist Abdullah Al-Nasser agreed with the economist on the fact that the Saudi market is being mishandled, mainly because retailers manipulate prices and devices. “Some of the cheating methods used involve initializing and updating the devices and selling them as new,” he said, adding that part of the problem stems from the huge amount of mobile outlets authorized to sell the devices.

“Authorities allow the opening of a large number of outlets that are licensed to sell mobile phones, satellite dishes, decoding cards and fake accessories for mobiles,” Al-Nasser pointed out.

According to Al-Nasser, the solution to the market’s chaos rests on the shoulders of the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization. It should set out accurate specifications and keep up with the ever-changing world of technology.

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