Riyadh, Nov 13 (IANS): Saudi Arabia will launch an updated work-at-home programme for women in a few weeks, while its portal will be introduced by the end of December, media reported Thursday.

The programme has been designed to support the work of Saudi women in a way suitable for their family conditions and conservative nature of Saudi society, Xinhua cited Fahad Al Tukhaifi, undersecretary in the labour ministry for special programmes, as telling the Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper.

The programme was launched four years earlier, but was not fully implemented as it did not tackle the legislative, organisational and technical requirements.

The programme is expected to create new job opportunities for women as well as individuals with special needs by enabling them to work without going to their workplaces.

These jobs will cover many sectors including telecommunications, travel agencies, IT, marketing, public relations and journalism.

The programme is part of the initiative to reduce the unemployment rate among females, which was between 32 to 34 percent last year, according to a report in Saydatyi magazine in April, while the unemployment rate among males was only 6.2 percent in the same period.