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Boost Emiratisation, says Shaikh Nahyan

DUBAI - Shaikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, yesterday urged the French Business Council members to boost the process of 'Emiratisation'.

The Council members should provide full and productive employment for UAE nationals and eventually help the country achieve a higher percentage of employed nationals, he said.

Shaikh Nahyan made the remarks in his address on 'National Manpower Planning in the UAE' at the French Business Council members' luncheon hosted at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai.

"The growing unemployment rate among nationals is unacceptable in a country that depends heavily on expatriate labour. The future of the UAE must depend on the productivity and contributions of its national work force," he said.

In his speech, Shaikh Nahyan highlighted the increasing unemployment rate among nationals and the imbalance created in the UAE labour market. He also reviewed several important features that currently exist in the labour market which needs to be changed if Emiratisation had to succeed.

"Women, who constitute a clear majority of graduates, also constitute a majority of the unemployed in the UAE. Ways to enhance the role of women in the work force is another important step to achieve the goals of emiratisation," he said, urging every private sector employer to recruit and employ national graduates actively.

For example, the overwhelming majority of nationals are employed in the government and the public sector and nationals constitute a very small minority in the private sector, he said, pointing out to the urgent need to explore ways to increase the national share of employment in the private sector.

To achieve the goals of emiratisation, Shaikh Nahyan disclosed that several initiatives were being seriously considered. Among them are the need to set rational priorities and targets for Emiratisation and the need for the private sector to be seriously committed to the social and economic development of the country.

"Therefore, business leaders must become partners in planning and assessing the employment of nationals and become familiar with the educational programmes of the colleges and universities in the UAE."

"Most importantly, we should, as partners, establish an employment information exchange to make data and information available on different careers and job openings readily avilable to our students."

Commenting on the other initiatives, he said the government was examining all aspects of public sector employment of non-nationals.

"We want qualified nationals to take over leadership positions in governmental and public institutions and to achieve this goal. We are working toward organisational restructuring, computerisation and the introduction of more merit-based systems to enhance productivity and reduce the number of non-nationals in the public sector."

Promotion of entrepreneurship among nationals, career education programmes to help students learn were among the other initiatives to achieve emiratisation, the Minister said.

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