UAE | Government
UAE government prepares to create more jobs
The UAE government is working to prepare the job market for the post global financial crisis period by drafting plans to develop value-added economic sectors and develop small- and medium-sized enterprises to create more jobs, said the Minister of Labour at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) summit on the global employment crisis.
- By Wafa Issa, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:05 June 17, 2009
- Image Credit:
- It is not anticipated that unemployment rates will increase among the UAE workforce, the majority of whom are expatriates, says Saqr Gobash Saeed Gobash, Minister of Labour.
Dubai: The UAE government is working to prepare the job market for the post global financial crisis period by drafting plans to develop value-added economic sectors and develop small- and medium-sized enterprises to create more jobs, said the Minister of Labour at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) summit on the global employment crisis.
Saqr Gobash Saeed Gobash told the gathering at the ILO summit in Geneva on the global employment crisis that "despite the difficulties, we see this crisis as an opportunity to reconsider the priorities of national economies, including our own national economy. We should move ahead with developing value-added economic sectors in accordance with our federal government's strategy.
"We should also focus on developing small and medium-sized enterprises to create job opportunities for our citizens and to attract skilled foreign labour."
To execute such plans requires closer cooperation between the UAE and its partners, including the GCC and Arab countries and the Asian labour source countries and to make good use of the expertise of the relevant international organisations, according to Gobash.
"I am looking forward with particular interest to the issuing of the final report of the committee formed by this summit to enable us to identify new areas for cooperation between the UAE and the ILO," said Gobash.
The global financial crisis has had a direct impact on the economy and labour market in the UAE but its effect has been limited on the UAE job market, according to Gobash.
Gobash said the unemployment rate in the UAE workforce, where the majority are expatriates, will not increase in the context of the global financial crisis.
Upon the emergence of the early signs of the crisis, the UAE Federal Cabinet took important proactive and preventive measures which have mitigated the impact of the crisis.
Thus the government pumped sufficient liquidity into the banking sector, ultimately amounting to $33 billion (Dh121.19 billion), and guaranteed all deposits in national and foreign banks operating in the country up to the end of 2013, Gobash said.
"It is not anticipated that unemployment rates will increase among the UAE workforce, the majority of whom are expatriates.
"What is anticipated is a slowdown in the rate of arriving workers, coupled with a slight increase in the number of those who leave the country on completion of the projects for which they were brought.
"It is also expected that access by UAE citizens to the job market in the private sector will be faced with some challenges, given the fact that dwindling growth rates will limit the creation of lucrative job opportunities in this sector," said Gobash.
More than 660,000 labour cards were issued between October 2008 and March 2009 and only 405,000 cards were cancelled, indicating an average monthly growth of 43,000 in the UAE labour force, according to the ministry's statistics.
However, there are no available statistics for the period after March.
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