Is the RTA doing enough for Dubai ? Your comments here, please.

Private firms are failing to live up to their Emiratisation commitments and are unable to keep disenchanted nationals, government officials said yesterday.

Some private employers rejected the comments as unfair. Others conceded that the floundering efforts to increase the number of Emiratis in private companies constituted a significant challenge to employers, employees and policy makers.

Senior officials argued that private companies often hired Emiratis as quota-fillers, following the letter of the law but not its spirit.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE5B71WL20091208

Leading lenders met Dubai World on Monday to negotiate over a $3.5 billion (2.1 billion pound) sukuk, the world's largest, issued by Dubai World subsidiary Nakheel, builder of Dubai's palm-shaped islands.

That bond is scheduled to be repayed on December 14, in less than a week, but longer term creditors also face a request for a six month standstill on $26 billion of debt.

A banker close to the discussions said Dubai World had not yet shown the creditors a proposal.

In an address to the nation on the occasion of the 38th National Day of the UAE, The President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan stressed that the leadership and the UAE people are confident to continue steadily and consistently the implementation of what has been adopted in terms of the strategies and plans.

“The huge achievements attained were not the end in themselves, but the top priority was and still is to build national capacity and launch human energy directed towards the horizons of excellence, innovation and competition,” he added.