Abu Dhabi: The UAE has made milestone achievements in various walks of life under the rational leadership of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Labour Minister said.
Labour Minister Saqr Gobash was addressing 100 journalists from 43 countries who are currently on a visit to the UAE at invitation from the National Media Council on the occasion of the 40 anniversary of the UAE National Day.
The ministry has so made great achievements, the most prominent of which is the stability in the job market which have 4 million expatriate labourers who work for 250, 000 companies, Gobash said.
He said the ministry succeeded in reviewing policies of recruiting expatriate manpower after the completion of major development projects, as it focuses now on attracting highly qualified and skilled workforce to work with Emiratis to enable the UAE to move towards knowledge-based economy.
Gobash referred to the Wage Protection System which was introduced by the ministry to ensure the payment of workers' salaries on time. He praised the level of cooperation between the Labour Ministry and the World Bank in preparing the studies necessary to orient the skilled labour on the basis of knowledge economy.
The policies of recruiting labour will be different in the upcoming phase, he said, and stressed the importance of making the most of the current labour in the job market in order to increase production in a number of sectors, while focusing on attracting skilled labour and highly qualified and experienced cadres.
Gobash called for rationalizing the recruitment of low—class and blue-collar labour which were brought into the country to serve the country's development requirements in the early beginning of the UAE establishment through the gradual recruitment process from unskilled to skilled labour.
He reiterated that the UAE would pursue its emiratisation strategy, and pointed out that 200,000 Emiratis joined the job market, half of which work in the private sector.
