Abu Dhabi: A member of the Federal National Council on Tuesday questioned the lack of Emirati presence in insurance industry, demanding more efforts be exerted to train and employ them in the important sector, whose gross written premiums are Dh448 billion.

Ahmad Yousuf Al Nuaimi, a member from Ras Al Khaimah, said, “Only 1,310 citizens are employed in the industry, representing 68 per cent in the supervisory level, 28 per cent in the middle administration and four per cent in the high administrative level.”

He said the insurance industry is an important strategic sector that has the ability to provide suitable jobs for Emiratis and increase their competitiveness, and thus actively contribute to achieving the Emiratisation targets outlined in the UAE Vision 2021.

He expressed readiness to provide support to institutions and companies working in these sectors to enable them to achieve the required Emiratisation rates according to the points system.

He added that the ministry is keen to develop partnerships with various economic sectors in the country and to promote integration of roles and joint responsibility for Emiratisation.

Unlike the older quota system, the new scheme assigns point targets to institutions based on their revenues. In other words, insurance companies with greater gross written premiums have higher Emiratisation targets to work towards.

The entities earn input and output points to achieve their respective targets. The input points incentivise institutions for investing in the training of UAE nationals and developing their skill sets to help them move up the career ladder to senior management roles. Meanwhile, the output points reward banks and insurance companies for actual job creation and the quality of vacancies targeted towards Emiratis. For example, an entity scores five points if it creates a managerial position for a UAE national, whereas a non-managerial post fetches one point. If an entity fails to achieve the target, a financial penalty of Dh20,000 will be applied for every point below the target.

Other members raised the issues of rating car workshops system, providing motorists with greater protection against shoddy workmanship and counterfeit parts and the risk involved in using recycled materials in manufacturing of medical mattresses.