Uae Society

The society of the United Arab Emirates is one of the recent developed societies that has achieved great developments in the last decades and could achieve a big fame in the world. Dubai has become a leading business center where the businessmen from all over the world come to invest in Jabal Ali and the free zones all over the country. Also the country has developed transportation by building one of the biggest and most modern roads net to serve economy.

The country also builds ports, airports and improved service offices to meet the new changes in business. One best example is the launch of the e-portal to serve electronic business through the webs and protect trade. On the other hand the country has made great developments in the educational system which resulted in increasing numbers of university graduates with higher degrees in all fields. This enabled the country to hold business and achieve the nationalization policy.

We have to imagine those people who could get themselves from Bedouin life into civilization and urban life in less than quarter a century. In this project, I will reflect the light on the impact of the economic growth on the UAE society and I will discuss the current policy adopted by the government for interaction between the government and the federal as well as the social changes between social groups. Finally, I will predict the future changes for the UAE society. A-The Impact of the Economic Growth on the UAE Society:

The United Arab Emirates witnessed great demographic change over the past decade as it is clear that the migration of workforce from the Arab world and Asian countries to find better chances in the United Arab Emirates have changed the face of the demographic map in the country. It has been a fact that the national people of the UAE were the total inhabitants in the country at the early age before the development and conversion to the modern world. The national people first worked in trade, fishing and handmade manufacturers.

The United Arab Emirates was a famous hub of trade and the strong history has played role in the existence of the strong economy. The UAE’s location has given it a unique advantage as the country is located in the heart of the trade routes between the east and the west. It also overlooks great waters in the region where large ships pass by. The UAE has many special ports in the area which has enabled it to be a pioneer in Navy and sea trade from the past generations.

The UAE has moved to development after the discovery of oil which attracted many investments and work force from all over the regional countries. The UAE nationals were about 68% of the total population in the 1970s. They were the owners of the country’s economy and they worked for the development of the country. After the creation of the federal government, the seven Emirates have become united under one government. The United Arab Emirates has adopted strategy to achieve development in all fields: In the real estate, Education, transport, aviation as well as health and economy.

The higher incomes of the national people and the massive increase in the oil rates allowed the country to develop quickly which required massive work force to share the countries strategies and bear the burdens of development subsequently, work force in all fields came to the UAE and lived there. Now, the demographic map changed until the expatriates have become more than 90% while the UAE nationals stand at only 10%. We can say that the expatriate are the base of development in the country now days.

They occupy most of the jobs and do all kinds of work especially in the field of real estate and establishment of the infrastructure. It is a fact that the beginner expatriates were originally building workforce who were not qualified. They worked in contracts and the infrastructure sector, builders, carpenters, technicians and unskilled work force. They have been brought from the nearby countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh and of course some were from the African countries.

The need of the government to establish a civilized country to be among the world’s new countries. The leaders of the UAE were aware of the importance of technology and education. They allowed the qualified expatriates to share the development policy. Teachers, Engineers, doctors, designers, consultants and project managers have been encouraged to come to the UAE and take part in the country’s development. The UAE has provided all the expatriates with good living conditions and established a department for migration affairs to tackle their issues.

It has offered them good salaries that’s which made the UAE a lovely country to any job seeker. The expatriate play a vital role in the development in the country’s economy and they are the back bone of it due to two reasons. The first is that most of the country’s economy depends on the private sector which seeks highest profits by employing the expatriates with low salaries instead of the national Citizens as they look for higher incomes. The second reason lies in the nature of work as the expatriates can do many of labor works that the nationals refuse to do.

The government adopts nationalization policy with the aim of hosing the national people instead of the expatriates. It has created labor laws that oblige companies and institutions to employ a percentage of 4% of the national people within the jobs. The state encourages the corporations by giving them more advantages and facilities. In the government department, there is wide replacement of workforce, the nationals have already occupied many jobs reached the percentage of 60% in many departments and they are already occupying the leading jobs in most of he government jobs. The challenge is the need to enhance the UAE national’s experiences and job skills to be employable and worth their positions otherwise they will be a barrier in front of the economy. The problem which faces nationalization is that the nationals refuse the low salary jobs and they look for higher incomes. I can say that the expatriates play an important role in the UAE economy as they share the government in developing the country. They do all the jobs that the nationals refuse to do and they have private entities that support economy.

B-Federal and Local Governments: There has been changes into the UAE political system between the government and the federal as there is a great shift into the new world’s missions federal government which has changed since the establishment of the state under the term of the constitution the ruler may relinquish certain areas of authority to the federal government one situation when the constitution permitted the membership in the exporting in the organization of oil exporting countries.

As the smaller emirates have benefited from education, the relationship between federal and local system of the government continues to evolve. They have become able to recruit personnel to local government services that they once handled instead of them by federal institutions. The key driver behind such developments remains performance and efficiency in the issue of service delivery to citizens and expatriate populations residing in the UAE. The United Arab Emirates is considered one of the smart countries in the world.

The government of the UAE was aware of the importance of telecommunication and technologies in this field since the establishment of the modern country. The state of the UAE has been implementing technologies in IT and electronic systems in all the departments and municipalities’ long time ago. The aim of E-Government policy is to strengthen ties between the governmental departments on federal level which will guarantee the ability to become closer to the clients and residents in the UAE as well as establishing sources of information to be in the hand of all sectors and encourage investment in the country.

The UAE official portal is considered an umbrella to cover all the eservices and information from the federal and local departments all over the country. According to the federal law no. 3 for 2011, the General information authority (GIA) is merged with telecommunication Regulatory authority (TRA). The main purpose of the government is to establish an information community where information can be obtained and accesses easily which will help in decision making for all sectors.

The government is aware of the importance of IT and IT applications since the world of globalization where business extends all over the world implies strong business environment and also requires a strong control engine for business transactions and deals. The government aimed at establishing an information database that connect all over the country and provide information and knowledge about the government sectors and be easy obtained. The information will be in the hands of all seekers and they will be secure .

The ecommerce sector in the government was established to meet the current development in business worldwide since e-commerce has been common and necessity in business. It aims at monitoring transactions and license businesses in this filed through offering the best customer services such as verifying signatures and records which will protect the users and customers. The government launched the e-commerce web portal for the aim of serving all sectors and especially the investment sector and businessmen as well as the national.

Because many deals and purchase operations are done on the websites through web hosts, the government found that it is necessary to provide security and protect the nationals from any dangers and risks. The e-commerce department is responsible for providing license for businesses and investigating business portals as well as monitoring e-business and transactions between the partners. One example of the recent developments and profits of government is the issuance of national ID as one of the (eServices) provided by the portal. The issuance aimed at gathering information about the residents in the UAE.

ID card is very important to access secure services in the government and it prevents fraud and identity theft in the future. The ID card is a national card with electronic straps which preserves all the important information about the resident and allows the government to control and monitor the numbers of the UAE inhabitants. To sum up, I can say that the government is aware of the importance of technology in business now a days. The government has established E-government website with the aim of coping with the latest developments in business and have information data.

The e-government portal is very beneficial for businessmen and nationals as it provides them with information and facilitates the procedures of establishing new businesses. In e-commerce more security and guarantee to business that the transactions, certificates and slogans are trustful. C-Social group changes: With the advanced policies that were adopted by the country’s great and wise leaders , women started to find some place in the society firstly , it was allowed fro them to leave the house and go to schools to study .

The progressive outlook of the previous leaders of the country was keen that women will have their role to play in the development of the country and consequently many channels were provided for them. Women’s schools were established and graduates have been added to work force and it was allowed for them to occupy jobs and have high ranks as well. Results say that women have excels men in education even though they started later in education. Numbers of university graduates of females in the UAE have been bigger than males 60% females to 40 % of males.

Emirates University was established in 1976 and Zayed University in 1998 which serve more than 2500 female students. The government has allowed the students from both genders to obtain education with future out look to the role of the women in the country and because of the wise leaders of the country, now we find thousands of UAE people are studying higher diplomas and master degrees both males and females Women have taken their place in leadership positions and have shared in decision making process. One evident for that is the role of women in the parliament as it is allowed to women to join parliament elections and there are already 22. % of parliament members of women. Great changes have occurred to the males view to women accordingly as the UAE women have surprised all when they excelled in all fields and privately in higher levels of education. Now there is a female Judge and ministry female assistants. Women also are involved in the community safety by the first Khawala Bint Azore Military College. D-The future changes in the UAE society: It is a fact that the oil is the gift of god to the gulf countries and the UAE. The area of The Gulf has witnessed great developments in the last few decades, because of the tremendous revenues of the oil sector.

The great number of oil discoveries and fossil resources in the UAE as they have already affected the life of the population within the country. The United Arab Emirates is the second biggest oil exporter in the GCC after Saudi Arabia. The oil revenues have played a big role in the economy of the United Arab Emirates as it has created many chances for investment in oil industries and oil explorations. It has also provided thousands of jobs for both the national citizens and the expatriates. Along with oil industries, there are many service industries that have been established with the advent of petroleum.

Some of such industries are luxurious hotels, hospitals, transportation and schools. The future of oil and its role in the UAE economy depends on the government polices in this regard. The state of the UAE announced on strategic policy for the use of the resources in general with the aim of saving the rights of the future generations. It is trough the movement to investment in other sectors and diversification of investment which in turn will vary the income resources and demolish the risk of depending on oil.

The leadership is ready to face the challenges in the future and is constantly making plans to deal with the post-oil era in order to maintain its sustainable development. The wise leadership policy for development focuses on the development in IT and technology not just oil. The intended future national incomes are from the other sectors such as IT and technology manufacture. For such purpose, the country has encouraged investment and movement of capital and corporations to the UAE. Manufacturing and industry of IT and technologies is the future target of the UAE leaders.

Strong evidence is the establishment of the biggest world port in the Sahara in Jabal Ali. The United Arab Emirates has been benefiting from the oil revenues by achieving real progress in the other sectors to guarantee variety of investment. It has joined the regional organization and the world ones with the aim of empowering the economy. It joined the GCC in 1981 which played role in the development and strength of the GCC economy and the UAE economy. The results and profits have been in the cancellation of taxes between countries and freedom of capital, investment and human transfer within the GCC.

The results are increase in the investment, capital and economic power since the GCC countries have many features in common such as the language, habits, religion and geographical conditions which highlighted the GCC and made success. The UAE joined the world trade organization (WHO) in 1996 which is considered a challenge for the current industries since the features of the (WHO) imply free economic environment and free transfer of goods, services and capital which will become a great challenge in front of the national industries .

There is in fact flow of foreign Asian products in the UAE market and it is expected that Weaving and petrochemical industries will be severely affected as well as agriculture. The UAE has adopted free economic policies since the beginning and it is a fact that customs Tariffs are lower than the global rates. The UAE will have to adopt more quality standards for its industries to face the Asian attacks. Conclusion: Oil is considered the engine of economy at most of the GCC countries as the income of oil revenue has made the gulf area some of the richest countries in the world.