HE Saqer Ghubash: "The new vision of the Ministry of Labor: Transformation from routine transactions to labor market concept as a part of the national economy."
Ghubash then stated the new vision and the long-term strategy of the Ministry to bring to fruition the economic vision of the UAE.
"The Emiratization issue is linked to the pattern of the UAE economic development besides other factors like the education output- labor market input gap, and the pay variance between public and private sectors," he added.
The Minister of labor also demonstrated the latest developments in the local labor market. He started with the challenges facing the market, e.g. labor market unification, participation of citizens in the said market especially in the private sector, in addition to the availability of labor in the light of economic development requirements.
HE Ghubash presented some facts and figures about the sectoral distribution of labor in the UAE, the contribution of different economic sectors in GDP, and the imbalance in population structure. In this context, he confirmed the necessity to maintain the efforts to raise the Emiratization rate in the private sector.
Finally, the Minister of labor raised one central question "how can we move our choices towards a sustainable economic development and facing the challenges". He referred to HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and the UAE Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai's quote in the Federal Government Strategy, "We can harmonize the development strategies and population situation therapy if we well-manage restructuring the national economy to be knowledge-based one."
The door of discussion then opened to the Council's members. Most questions and interventions raised focused on bank guarantees, companies' classification standards, Emiratization in private sector, fees imposed by the Ministry of Labor on companies, employee's movement within local labor market, and the impacts of expatriates on the UAE cultural scene.
In his turn, HE Ghubash answered all questions. He confirmed the Ministry's desire to release rules and regulations that meet the business community's requirements, and to provide excellence services to smooth the transactions.
Finally, HE Ghubash stressed that the proposed classification of companies relies on their sectors' contribution to the GDP.
Khalid bin Sulayem: "Positive indicators of Dubai's tourism despite the global financial crunch impacts.."
HE Khalid bin Sulayem, Director General, Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM)- Government of Dubai presented the department's plans and programs to confront the impacts of the global financial crisis. He stated that crisis hit the global tourism movement but its impacts on Dubai's tourism are less compared to many other countries. "One evidence is the number of visitors to Dubai which increased from 6.9 million in 2007 to 7.5 million in 2008."
HE Khalid bin Sulayem also compares the hotels performance in Dubai between 2008 and the Q1 2009. He mentioned that the growth average of guests was 5% during the period which is considered "good" given the present situation in many advanced tourist countries. The growth rate of the number of hotels and hotel apartment arrives at 9%, and the number of rooms available was 17%.
