President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has instructed the establishment of the Khalifa Fund for Enabling Emiratisation in support of the empowerment policy he has launched and in completion of the President’s initiatives seeking to advance socio-economic development plans, provision of decent living means and stability to UAE citizens.
The new institution aims to provide financial resources necessary to support programmes and policies for encouraging UAE citizens to enter the private sector labour market, help them to seize job opportunities the private sector offers, and secure required funds for delivering a package of rewards towards achieving that end.
In its meeting today under the chairmanship of Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the federal cabinet reviewed the work mechanisms of the new entity, scope of its mandate and executive measures needed to start its operation as soon as possible under the supervision of the National Human Resources Development and Employment Authority (Tanmia).
The package of incentives the Fund will offer includes payment of financial privileges when a UAE citizen joins work at the private sector so as to reduce the pay gap between the public and private sectors, allocation of funds to employers to help them cover a certain percentage of the pay the national private sector employees will draw in the first year, funding part of training and rehabilitation costs of the new national employee when he joins the private sector for the first year and contribution to long and short term training programmes for national job seekers.
The Fund will also use its financial resources to advance policies and programmes aimed at creating new job offers at the local and federal levels, supporting and financing small and medium scale enterprises, and financing university specialisations that cater for requirements of the local labour market.
The Fund will act as a key contributing mechanism to leverage participation of citizens and develop the social welfare concept into a new one that enables able social assistance recipients to become a productive force contributing to the growth of the national economy. It will also serve as a mechanism for facilitating success of Emiratisation policy and programmes and increasing the share of small size businesses owned by UAE citizens in a way that generates more job opportunities.
