Dubai: Three more sectors finance, currency exchange and insurance besides banking, must now meet annual emiratisation targets, the UAE cabinet has decided, a top official said yesterday.
Jamal Al Jasmi, general manager of the Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies, told a bankers meet that companies in the three sectors must now increase the percentage of locals in their workforce by four per cent every year. Only the banking industry is currently subject to this target that followed from a government decree in 1998.
"In their last meeting, the UAE Council of Ministers issued a decree to include finance, exchange and insurance companies under the HRDC umbrella in terms of nationalisation," Al Jasmi said.
The Human Resources Development Committee monitors the progress of emiratisation in the banking industry.
Al Jasmi said the percentage of nationals working in the nearly 50 UAE banks, both local and foreign, stood at 29.8 per cent at the end of 2005 and the institute aimed to raise this to 40 per cent by the end of 2007.
He said the institute had also recommended to the Central Bank that the banking industry shift to a five-day week, with Friday and Saturday being the weekend, as in Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.
