The UAE's Projects Of The 50: Responding to The Questions Raised Around UAE's Latest Initiatives

Projects 50 UAE.jfif

The latest batch of benefits and initiatives that were announced as part of UAE's 'Projects of The 50' are what I would describe as 'ground-breaking'.

There have been a lot of questions and opinions that were raised around these initiatives. I'll try to address some here in short (these are MY views on this topic):

Question) "What is the govt's goal behind this approach"?

My view: This is a Private-Public-Partnership and the incentives seemed to be aimed at enabling employers to employ Emiratis. Rather than force, the govt is shouldering part of the burden of making the private sector more appealing to local talent, and at the same time encouraging nationals to consider employment in this important sector.

Question) "Do you think the idea of a 'salary support scheme' is a good and sustainable approach?

My view: Yes it is. At least for now. The salary support scheme in my view is actually designed first and foremost to make hiring Emiratis more appealing to the private sector employers. So many of which have complained about the "high salary expectations" of nationals and "why doesn't the govt pay the difference in salary" for as long as I remember. If we would consider a ‘carrot and stick approach, consider this as ‘the carrot’ to encourage employers to hire Emiratis.

Question) "Is the yearly Emiratisation targets with a goal of 10% in 5 years a good idea"?

My view: If you ask me today if employers would still be encouraged to hire Emiratis after removing quotas or targets, my answer would be a resounding 'No'. Consider that I have never been a fan of quotas, and have been a big advocate of creating strong value that makes the proposition of hiring nationals hard to refuse. However, my experience has shown me that these targets are necessary for now to ensure a minimum number of Emiratis are employed while we focus on skills development.

Question) "Why insist on pushing Emiratis to the private sector, they still lack the skills"?

My view: First, that is an unfair stereotype to the many skilled and hardworking Emiratis and I have seen how this plays a role in reinforcing unfair bias against nationals.

Second, UAE's private sector employs around 5 million expat workforce (atleast 95% of the total workforce in the country). If we don't start integrating 75,000 Emiratis in this sector now (that is an estimated 15,000 Emiratis each year for the next 5 years) when do you propose we start?

Question) "Why aren't we focusing on employing Emiratis in the govt sector rather than private sector"?

My view: It's obvious that the public sector cannot take in all Emiratis and has reached a saturation point. Automation and the govt shifting the gear towards 'smart govt' means there are more employment opportunities in the private sector.

His Highness Sheikh Abdallah Bin Zayed, UAE's Foreign Minister stated a few years ago in a public forum to "stop dreaming of govt jobs". And His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid added to this sentiment yesterday when he said that "the future is in the private sector". The message can't be any clearer. It's time nationals embrace the future of work by developing the skills and experience to work in the private sector or become entrepreneurs.


Finally, while I'm encouraged by the prospects of these latest annoucements; I believe how these are implemented is crucial towards the success of these programs and most importantly ensuring the private sector becomes even more competitive in the UAE.


We are doing our bit in Sdara to prepare nationals who are not only employees, but problem solvers and value-creators.

#Emiratisation #Projects50oftheUAE #talentdevelopment #humancapital #nationalization #humanresource #employment #careers #uae

Talib Hashim