Saudi Arabia is in the process of redrafting its National Transformation Plan (NTP) 2020, only one year after it was launched, it has been reported.

According to the Financial Times, the implementation of some of the reforms will be delayed by as much as a decade, suggesting the country has decided some of the objectives were too ambitious.

“An internal document seen by the Financial Times labels the amended plan NTP 2.0 and adds: “The timeline of the NTP will continue to 2020, but the plan requires implementation objectives for 2025 and 2030,” reported the newspaper.

The original plan sets out various targets related to employment, including the creation of 1.2 million private sector jobs and reducing unemployment from 11.6 per cent to 9 per cent by 2020.

It is believed the government has been reworking the NTP – which is central to the kingdom’s aims to reduce its dependency on oil revenues – since July.

“The revamped NTP will focus on reforms to the government bureaucracy, such as improving the productivity of civil servants and boosting transparency. Its goals will also include increasing female participation in the workforce and supporting small and medium-sized companies,” according to the Financial Times.

The full scale of the changes to the NTP will not be known until the end of October, when it is understood a new draft will be issued.

Saudi Arabia has already been working on increasing the number of women in employment. In August, a new dedicated job search website for women was launched. Alajnabia.com features jobs in sectors such as education, healthcare, marketing, accounting, engineering and more. The target group of females is the younger generation, who are educated but lack access to information about available positions.

Last month, figures issued by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Labour and Social Development (MLSD) show it has suspended the operations of 739,701 private sector organisations and a further 255,356 are at risk of suspension for not adhering to the kingdom’s strict new Saudisation requirements.