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Dubai Customs ahead in Emiratisation drive

Dubai Customs has made remarkable strides in the Emiratisation drive with 79.3 per cent of its staff members now being nationals, the highest percentage among all government departments in the emirate.

This was announced by Ahmed Butti, Executive Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone, on Wednesday while releasing the Dubai Customs’ fourth annual Corporate Sustainability Report.

“As many as 362 internal and external training sessions were held in 2011 against 324 in 2010, with an average of 18.7 hours per local employee and 13 hours per expatriate employee.”

The report highlights the Dubai Customs’ adherence to Emiratisation policy through recruiting highly qualified, skilful and professional nationals and training them to develop their technical and behavioural competencies. “The Dubai Customs spares no effort in providing training opportunities for distinguished individuals.”

The organisation trained its employees on how to respond during disasters, carried out a number of cultural, education and health campaign programmes, and undertook several humanitarian activities including the construction of two mosques in Somalia last year. The department also launched a campaign for orphans in the emirate.

Regarding its sustainability efforts, Butti said Dubai Customs successfully saved 828,000 watts of electricity, cut 41,000 tonnes of Co2 emission by using environment-friendly air-conditioning and warming systems and green building systems. Through its recycling programme, the department managed to preserve 208,000 trees and adopted the “Green Customs” initiative which was launched in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Meanwhile, the report includes key performance indicators for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the organisational level, maintaining the balance between the economic, social and environmental elements.

“Dubai Customs is the first Customs organisation in the world to have a Sustainability Report in accordance with the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) - G3.1 from Amsterdam,” he said, adding that his department has attained level A, the highest accreditation reflecting compliance and transparency in the organisation’s annual achievements.

The department also launched the Best Working Mother Award for which the employees could elect a representative to ensure transparency.

“The department also gave due concern to the safety and health initiatives and launched the “CADRE” programme for the enhancement of social networking with employees,” Butti said.

Also included in the report is the opening of Dubai Customs pavilion at Kidzania in The Dubai Mall which trained around 22,500 children on the job of a customs inspector, besides helped create awareness among 39,000 students about the intellectual property right.

Dubai Customs won for the second consecutive time the “Arabia CSR Award” for the Government Sector category for second time in 2011 beating more than 110 international and Arab world companies and corporations.

ahmedshaaban@khaleejtimes.com

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