SHARJAH, (Pakistan Point News - 14th Oct, 2019) The first dialogue session of the 6th GCC HR & Labour Market Conference involved interesting discussions on the digital economy and stressed the need to develop a comprehensive transformation strategy that serves the entire community of the GCC states.
Sheikh Fahim bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Executive Chairman of Sharjah’s Department of Government Relations, and Chairman of the Higher Committee of Digital Transformation of Sharjah, attended the session.
Entitled "Challenges and Opportunities of Gulf Job Localisation in the Digital Economy Environment", the session was also attended by Mansour Al-Shathri, Deputy Chairman of the Riyadh Chamber and Chairman of the Human Resources and Labour Market Committee; Dr. Abdulla Bader Al Sada, Deputy CEO of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and Hamad Jarrah Al-Omar Deputy Director-General of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
During the dialogue session, Sheikh Fahim said, "The GCC governments need to double their efforts in coordination with relevant bodies to restructure educational systems to make them adaptable to changes and digital-based future jobs. Building a joint GCC digital economy would entail creative ideas, visions and innovations, in addition to a unified work system capable of keeping abreast with the latest economic developments."
Mansour Al-Shathri said, "The digital economy will surely bring about some significant challenges. Will it provide new job opportunities for young people or lead to a decline? Will it lead to controlling the market without the need for manpower? The digital economy is not only a challenge for governments, but also for young people."
Dr. Abdulla Al Sada said, "Young people have the excellent ability to learn quickly as they are equipped with advanced scientific skills and have academic degrees. To that end, the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry has carried out several programmes in cooperation with major international university institutions and has delivered training courses in which entrepreneurs receive accredited certificates that qualify them to enter the digital labour market."
Hamad Al-Omar highlighted that there are considerable Gulf investments in the digital economy, but are still outside the GCC markets and added that GCC governments have to pave the way to attract these investments.
Organised by the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the conference was inaugurated on Monday at the Expo Centre Sharjah and will run until 15th October.
On the second day, an important dialogue session will be held to discuss how to benefit from the graduation projects of academic institutions.
