Shaikh Majid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Culture and Arts Foundation, Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, HE Shaikh Sultan Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, the President’s Advisor, Dr Shaikh Saeed Bin Mohammad Al Nahyan, HE Shaikh Ahmed Bin Hamed, the President’s Advisor, HE Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Public Works, HE Shaikh Ahmed Bin Saif Al Nahyan, HE Shaikh Sultan Bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, HE Mohammad Habroush Al Suwaidi, the President’s Advisor, HE Ahmed Juma Al Zaabi, Deputy Minister of Presidential Affairs

A bounced cheque is criminal offence punishable under UAE law 401. jail for period between 1 month to 8 years on discretion of Judge.

A post dated cheque (PDC) is to be certified by the bank means that bank will be holding the amount to certify it for processing at a later date.

The first and biggest is COMMENTS! Registration is no longer required to post a comment on any post. Of course if you already have an account you can still login to ensure your comments are attributed to you, but those who don’t can now post a comment without any long term commitment. Also, on the right you can see some of the recent comments so you’ll always know what the active discussions are. This was the most requested thing we’ve heard from people since our last redesign and we’re excited to see where it leads.

The next change is also something that was heavily requested, and that is a change to the ADS on the sites. You’ll immediately notice fewer of them, but what might not be as obvious is those smaller square ones to the right are specific to this city only and are being sold for a flat rate for a period of time rather than a confusing CPM/traffic/network model. Depending on the city, these range from $7-$175 for a full week. If you purchase one, during that time your ad will be the only one in that spot and will show on every page. We set these up both to make it easier for smaller local businesses to get their ads on our site, and also to help us bring in ads that relate better to our local audiences. Also, keeping these sites online is expensive and every little bit helps.

There are a bunch of other things we changed but we’ll leave those to you to investigate and take advantage of. Hope you like it, and we look forward to seeing you in the comments!!

Love,
The folks at MBHQ

Being leaders in Eduction-Business industry in UAE, Gems group is minting money by using diversified front companies.

recently at a meeting held by group of Parents of Our Own English High School it was revealed that the bus company which has the transportation contract is also under ownership of Directors of Gems group. The bus fee hike has multiplied several folds in past 24 months without any rhyme & reason. Parents are forced to comply or else take a TC. Who the people shall turn to, when the owners are connected to the TOP rulers of UAE.

In this crunch time after the collapse of almost 90% of UAE businesses the only booming business (for a while) is education. As soon as session ends, come Vacations, suffering parents will move OUT & send families back to home countries.

But who will put a tab on Gems Group… it is a million dollar question.

who will protect the parents and implement law & put a check on the schools & its transportation systems / contracts.

An increasing number of companies in Dubai are announcing layoffs and adjusting their hiring and pay practices as the impact of financial crisis grows in the emirate.

Dubai’s booming economy has, in recent years, created millions of jobs and led to a hiring frenzy in which many employers were struggling to find talent.

In the first quarter of 2008, 306,000 work permits were issued to foreigners.

However, the story began to change in October, when Damac Properties cut 200 jobs, or 2.5% of its workforce.

Other companies quickly followed suit, including Nakheel, which sacked 500 employees, and Shuaa Capital, which cut 21 jobs, or 9% of its manpower.

‘The effects of the global financial crisis were delayed in reaching Dubai but there is no denying they are being felt today,’ says Rabea Ataya, CEO, Bayt.com, the largest job site in the Middle East.

‘The dramatic surge in recruitment activity seen early in 2008 as new sectors, particularly financial services and real estate, competed for top talent to fuel their growth, has abated significantly.’

‘Isolated problem’
Markus Wiesner, Managing director of Mercer Middle East, agrees that the financial crisis has hit certain sectors very hard, but says the problem has been relatively isolated and overall most companies are handling it by recruiting fewer employees or being more conservative on salary increases.

‘In Dubai, we are seeing a moderate slowdown in the growth curve rather than a complete stop or recession as in other countries. We are starting from a very high and aggressive growth level, so while yes, there has been a slowdown, this economy is not in a recession but has settled into a more moderate, or maybe a better word is more reasonable, growth rate right now.’

As the financial crisis has grown Bayt.com has received a dramatic increase in CVs at all career levels. The company has over two million CVs in its database, the bulk of which come from the GCC, Levant and North Africa.

About 20% are from outside the region, with the most noticeable spikes having been in CVs from the US and UK – particularly in the financial services and real estate sectors and amongst fresh graduates, especially MBAs.

In addition to an increase in quantity, there has been a noticeable increase in the quality of CVs, especially from overseas, as hiring activity in world capitals has shrunk.

Moreover, top talent has become more mobile in their job search and more amenable to considering employment opportunities in the GCC, which was already seeing a significant surge in interest from overseas talent even before the financial crisis, Ataya said.

Not surprisingly job listings have dropped noticeably on Bayt, but a main reason for this, Ataya says, is that employers are increasingly using the site’s search functionality to find talent rather than posting an advertisement for a position, which is a trend the company began to witness even before the financial crisis arose.

Companies prune workforce
With a surplus of talent on the market, many employers are ‘upgrading’ and hiring talent at levels they were previously unable to easily find and/or afford in the local markets, Ataya noted.

Wiesner agrees, saying companies have told him they hired many people over the last couple of years ‘just for the sake of recruiting to fill positions’, but in doing so felt they had to compromise on the quality of people they hired. Now these organisations are looking at the downturn as an opportunity to trim staff that may be underperforming, and keep those people that they want to hold on to in the long run, he said.

Companies will differ in their approach to dealing with the financial crisis. Multinational firms in Dubai are unlikely to change their benefit plans because – even though these packages are adjusted to the local market – the plans are relatively standard across the company’s worldwide locations. Instead, these companies are more likely to cut salaries and bonuses.

‘Local companies, on the other hand, might adjust both pay and benefits, but usually the first to go is bonuses, and then – in this region – they are more likely to freeze, rather than cut back, on salaries,’ Wiesner said.

Wait-and-see approach
Many companies say they are still evaluating the situation.

‘A lot of our clients are taking a wait a see and approach. They tell us they see no immediate need to lay off people or cut salaries, but the situation may look different a year from now. We will see over the next 6-12 months the real effect of the downturn, particularly on Dubai and its economy.’

One fact of life that employees should expect is that salaries will remain relatively flat for the time being. ‘Recently we had high inflation – up to 14% – and pay increases that were close to that figure but not 100% keeping up.

‘So what I expect this year is lower inflation and lower pay increases justified by the global financial situation. Again we will hear similar complaints from employees this year because of the situation in terms of the percentage growth versus inflation is similar to what it was last year,’ Wiesner said.

Another trend that employees are likely to see is more pay packages based on performance. ‘We have quite a lot of organisations coming to us looking at more performance-related payment schemes, but I would not say that this is particularly driven by the current economic situation.

‘This is a general cultural change that has been happening here over the past two to three years, where organisations are looking for payment structures with higher bonuses relative to salaries. I think organizations now have a stronger incentive to go down that route,’ he noted.