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The
United Arab Emirates underwent a rapid transitional
period in the past three and a half decades, where in a
short span of time its simple economy and limited
resources transformed into a modern society in the
early1970’s. Since its creation in December, 1971 the
UAE witnessed rapid economic, social and developmental
changes which were mainly spurred
on by the concurrence of the rise of the
Federation with the sharp
increase in oil prices in 1972 and the ensuing inflow of
oil revenues.
The country has advanced suddenly and rapidly from its
modest beginnings a quarter century ago to high oil
revenue and riches. The wisdom of His Highness, the late
Shaikh Zayed Bin Suktan AL Nahayan, the President of the
UAE, was the driving force behind the ideal utilization
of these revenues and the achievement of advancement and
prosperity.
A trained workforce was needed for the management and
operation of all business sectors and for covering the
inadequacy in the developing social services. The
National work force was not yet ready to play an
effective role in this vast development.
The influx of oil revenues created a wide gap between
the immense speed of modernization and the construction
of an infrastructure and the skills, experience and
qualification of National manpower. That is, the pace of
the progress of comprehensive development in the UAE
which was funded by the available resources was faster
than that of the National work force. As a result, there
was an extreme shortage in National manpower at all
levels, from unskilled labour to key, specialized and
technological positions.
The lack of participation of National in the workforce
was expected, not merely because of the influx of oil
revenues, but also because of the small population of
National and the shortage of the required skills for the
management and execution of ambitious development
projects.
This situation lead to increasing reliance on the
expatriate workforce which started to arrive in the
country in large numbers attracted by the availability
of financial resources and development projects. This
dependence on expatriate manpower was meant to be
temporary and short-term. However, after more than three
decades, the country is still confronted by the
problem of an extreme shortage in the National workforce
in terms of quantity and quality as opposed to the large
number of Nationals employed in the civil service and
the local government companies, coupled with an increase
in the number of expatriates’ labor in the other private
institutions.
According to the Federal National Council report
presented in June 2001, the U.A.E is exceptional in its
low ratio proportion of citizens to expatriates. This
was 24.5% in the 1995 census, reduced from 64% in the
1986 census. (Gulf newspaper, 20th June 2001.)More
recent statistics suggest that the percentage was
reduced even further to 18% in 1999. It may continue to
decline in the coming years if circumstances remain as
they are now.
Comparing from the table below the human resource needs
in 1995 (218,494) one can see that there will always be
a need for newly trained Emiratis to reduce the gap of
manpower requirement, as indicated by the forecast for
the year 2015.
This situation is not unique in the U.A.E. as a recent
economic report by the National Bank of Dubai shows. Other GCC
countries like Qatar have only 17%
Nationals,
Kuwait 19%, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 28%, Bahrain 45%
and Oman 46% in their workforces.
The National Bank of Dubai (NBD) has an ongoing
commitment in providing training and development
opportunities, to enable UAE Nationals to build banking
careers and help the development of the UAE. Specially
designed and structured training programme help prosper
the bank’s desire to emiratisation and preservation of
its traditional and substantial values of quality and
service. The bank is proud that more than 32% of their
workforce are UAE Nationals.
In view of these statistics and the advent of the modern age with the
universal emphasis laid on human beings as the
main core of the developmental process, the UAE
government is paying the utmost attention to this
immensely important human factor. The government is
doing so because it bases almost all its developmental
plans and undertakings on human resource development
input. This is being done in fulfilment of the Nation’s
contemporary statewide development requirements. It has set Emiratization as the major focus of education, training and workforce
development.
The process of Emiratization is now being practiced in
all sectors in the U.A.E. and the prospect is that a big
chunk of the expatriate population will be replaced by a
National workforce over a period of time.
The wide vision and the driving force behind
Emiratization is His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid
Al Maktoum, Deputy President, Prime Minister and Ruler
of Dubai.
As we witness many of the highly prestigious houses in
the U.A.E. are following the lead of His Highness in
making Emiratization as their first priority in the
manpower planning. Al Habtoor Group has set a quota
system in its Group of Companies targetting to achieve a
35% National workforce by the end of 2007 in all levels
of all departments. | 
