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Demographic balance govt national priority

ABU DHABI - His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said on Sunday there was need to reduce the imbalance in the country’s demographic structure and empower the UAE citizens as the key driver to development. He was chairing a meeting of the Federal Cabinet at the Presidential Palace.

Shaikh Mohammed discusses a point with Shaikh Saif during the cabinet meeting in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. — Wam

The meeting also called for the control on importing unskilled workers, and instead to meet the demand by sources available in the local market.

Addressing the Cabinet meeting, which was dominated by the issue of demographic structure, Shaikh Mohammed said the UAE’s handling of the challenge was one of the most important national priorities and key guidelines of the government.

Shaikh Mohammed said: “The instructions given by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan are clear, empower the UAE citizen and make him the key engine of development. Guided by these instructions, the government is drawing and implementing an integrated framework of concerted initiatives and policies with the prime target to strike a demographic balance in parallel with the comprehensive development that benefits UAE citizens in all emirates of the country.”

According to the latest National Bureau of Statistics, the expatriate community accounts for 88.5 per cent of the total population of the country which is more than 8 million, leaving a huge disparity between UAE nationals and expatriates.

The Federal Cabinet passed a resolution after a lengthy debate to draw mechanism that will empower UAE nationals in the country’s economic social development as well as bring parity between expat and national residents.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Lt-Gen. Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as Chairman of the Federal Demographic Structure Council (FDSC), said thrust of major sovereign resolutions were taken, whereas all concerned organisations were tasked with implementation of them in line with the strategy presented.

• The first resolution issued by the Cabinet sets specific, clear percentage targets of UAE citizens over the next 20 years through a package of concerted economic and social policies and initiatives based on the projected economic and demographic growth scenarios during the period. All demographic policies will seek to deliver these targets, the Cabinet was informed.
• In the second resolution, Cabinet members instructed all entities concerned with economic planning and monitoring of manpower in the country to adopt a balanced development method characterised with economic diversification, dependence on skilled workforce and modern technology in its production cycle in order to have a knowledge-based economy that generates opportunities for UAE citizens and meets development requirements as per instructions of the leadership that make the citizen an axis and target of development.
• The Cabinet also approved the creation of a fund for productivity improvement with a mandate to stimulate the private sector to improve its productivity through introduction of advanced technologies, provision of skilled and trained workforce to the private sector companies. The fund will act under the jurisdiction of the Federal Demographic Structure Council with its Chairman approving its powers and statute.
• According to the third resolution, the Cabinet instructed that uncontrolled import of unskilled labourers should be limited and replaced by recruitment from within the UAE and bringing in highly skilled workforce based on the accredited professional and educational certificates.

The meeting decided that the Chairman of the Federal Demographic Structure Council may exempt from this resolution domestic helpers or any other categories he specifies.

• The Cabinet further instructed the authorities handling labour issues to work out suitable alternative methods to supply the local labour market with skillful professionals through establishment of overseas centres for testing and training workforce in the labour-sending countries without making employers bear any additional costs instead of the unsystematic import of workforce at present.
• In a bid to lessen the unskilled workers in the construction sector, the largest employer of this kind of manpower, the Cabinet asked the competent agencies to introduce an indicator for construction that defines a set of technical standards for building designs focusing on improving productivity in this sector and limiting the number of unskilled workers according to regulations that help contracting companies to use modern technology.
• The Cabinet further mandated the Council to define a ceiling for the number of vocational and marginal professions, or any other professions that could be replaced by modern technology. The numbers are to be specified annually and amended according to need, it was approved.

Government authorities and concerned establishments were also instructed to comply with these resolutions.

• The meeting assigned FDSC to oversee implementation of the resolutions, to establish a liaison among different entities towards the implementation and to regularly submit recommendations and progress reports about the initiative to the Cabinet.
• At the end of the session, the Cabinet praised the comprehensive strategy put forward by the FDSC and commended the efforts being made in dealing with the challenges of demographic structure.

The Cabinet stressed the need for all federal, local and private entities to join efforts and to work as a one team to make this initiative a success.

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