Nearly 51 percent of IT recruitment placements in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are absorbed by government and public sector institutions, while Dubai's job market dominates the region by offering 59 percent of all IT vacancies in the UAE, according to a new market survey.
The UAE government's aggressive drive towards IT integration has created a substantial demand for an IT workforce, with an annual growth of eight percent. The total IT workforce in the UAE is estimated from 80,000 to 100,000, with 6,400 to 8,000 new IT jobs created annually, according to the findings from a recent survey conducted by Madar Research .
"The frenzied pace at which the UAE government is embracing technology has generated a strong demand for IT professionals and also opened a new area of opportunity for UAE nationals to take up rewarding employment," said Director of the Dubai Naturalization and Residency Department (DNRD), Colonel Saeed Bin Belailah,. "It is expected that the UAE public sector absorbs the highest number of IT professionals as part of a government-led initiative towards automation and integration."
The DNRD, one of the foremost examples of leveraging IT to generate employment and enhance public services, is powered by a proactive and committed in-house IT department responsible for introducing innovations and pioneering new concepts, such as e-Gate, to speed up processes and increase security, for a more streamlined functioning of the department. Its IT department of 25 nationals is also responsible for running a highly complex database of all residents and visitors.
"UAE's rapid IT growth has been fueled by the government that is firmly committed to applying the benefits of technology to the lives of the people and to businesses. As a result, individual departments are constantly challenged to create solutions tailored towards greater efficiency and swiftness. DNRD has been highly successful in its IT operations, offering a number of services online, including applications for visas and renewals," Colonel Bin Belailah added.
"The levels of competence and expertise developed by some government bodies as a part of IT-driven initiatives can be seen in projects such as e-Gate, the electronic card access system at Dubai International Airport, developed wholly by an in-house IT team of nationals from DNRD," said Bin Belailah. "The increasing importance of IT has infused a new drive in the government sector, and we hope to see further innovations and improvements in the delivery of the service by all government departments and consequently generation of more IT jobs across the spectrum of services."
Market research analyses show that Dubai continues to dominate the IT development, commanding 59 percent of the IT vacancies in the UAE, because of outstanding IT projects like Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and the Knowledge Village.
DNRD and the Dubai Department of Civil Aviation has introduced a radical and innovative system of automated entry and exit gates at Dubai International Airport, to regulate the process of arrivals and departures. The electronic gates, which are the first of their kind in the Middle East and relatively new global concept, are expected to speed up the entire process of registration, in addition to providing the DNRD with an improved control of the inbound and outbound travelers.
The electronic gates utilize the concept of smart card and finger print identification to automate the registration process. The information system that manages the whole process including the electronic gate control, fingerprints and card issue has been completely devised and developed in-house by the national IT department at the DNRD. The fingerprint identification is a very significant aspect of the system, which ensures that each person can only register once on the system. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
