Dubai: Effective January 1, fines will be imposed by the Ministry of Economy upon commercial sectors and service centres who fail to use the Arabic when issuing invoices or assisting customers.
The deadline, which was December 31, 2014, was set to give commercial sectors and service centres the opportunity to implement Arabic in their facilities.
According to Dr Hashim Al Nuaimi, there remains an obvious shortage in Arabic-speaking staff in these sectors, which does not allow Arabs to participate in submitting reports, complaints or even questions.
Dr Al Nuaimi emphasised the importance of providing customers with the language they are most comfortable communicating in, such as Arabic, to get optimum results from customers.
Without offering the Arabic language, sectors imply that one must be able to speak a foreign language in an Arabic-speaking country where the language should be a basic right, he says.
His main concern is that many of the sectors continue to hire non-Arabic speaking employees, which only adds to the problem.
Dr Al Nuaimi referred to a recent study, conducted by the Ministry of Economy of 100 call centres of sectors, which clearly showed that 36 per cent of customer service and call centres nationwide do not have Arabic-speaking staff.
It also suggested that the number of Arabic-speaking employees in electronic repair centers and trade agencies add up to only 48 per cent of the workforce.
However, the same study stated that trade centres, sale outlets and cooperative societies had 65 per cent of their workforce able to communicate in Arabic and 82 per cent in medical centres.
And, 85 per cent of Arabic-speaking staff had been employed in the education sector, 95 per cent in hotels and 90 per cent in car agencies.
Dr Al Nuaimi said that with the implementation of Arabic communication rule, companies will now be able to work in a professional manner and get work done efficiently.
