• Home
• /
• Business

Expert urges need to reward employees

Michael Porter, a distinguished academician and author and the director of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Harvard Business School, yesterday said that one of the problems that the UAE's employment sector faces today is that the salaries of the employees are not in line with their performances, but they are fixed on other considerations. He added that this approach only creates inefficiency and smothers the skill levels.

Porter, who is be part of a research project that would assess and propose strategies to improve the economic competitiveness of the UAE as a whole, as well as each of the emirates that comprise the federation, also addressed a seminar in Dubai yesterday titled "Positioning the UAE in the Global Economy".

The project, which is a collaboration among the US-based Strategies for Energy Dependent Economies (SEDE), Inc., Dubai Development and Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi-based UAE Offsets Group, has a tenor of 18 months. And in this period, six researchers supported by a team, will give a solution for positioning the UAE as a dynamic global player.

Porter said: "The UAE has the potential of emerging as the most dynamic economy in the region. The country also can become the most successful ever in the global history bytransforming its economy from being dependent on oil for growth to something else."

But he also added that if the UAE needs to transform, then the country would need to bring in lots of changes to its labour laws among others. He said that the country has to also look at finding a balance between capital and skill so that it does not end up concentrating either too much on capital or labour intensive industries. It is also time that the UAE begin to replace the unskilled professions with job creation in those sectors that need more skilled employees, he added. The seminar, where Porter spoke yesterday, was inaugurated by Dr.Mohammed Khalfan bin Kharbash, the UAE's minister of finance and industry.

Wael Al-Mazeedi, founder and chief executive officer of the project and co-sponsor of BTU Ventures, the parent company of SEDE, saidonly select number of countries in the world are able to play a larger role in world affairs than their size would signify, with an impact beyond their borders. He felt that the UAE has the potential to emerge as one such country.

"The UAE is destined to become the economic engine of the Middle East, creating world-class role models both in business and in government for others in the region to emulate. It will also provide the Middle East region and the Islamic world with an opportunity to become truly a part of the global economy and marketplace," he added.