DUBAI: NEW VISA RULE TO BE IMPLEMENTED

For individuals from the sub-continent (India) and other countries of the world who are seeking for immediate employment in Dubai, you need to be aware that effective end of July 2009, a new visa rule is to be implemented. Thus, you have only limited time (spring and early summer) to find a suitable placement.

It has been predicted that due to this new visa rule, there would be a problem of labour shortages. Workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, the Philippines and Bangladesh who will come to Dubai on a visit visa will have to pay for a refundable deposit of AED 1,000.00 (USD 272.00) and take out health insurance while they hunt for work.

This new visa rule is intended to regulate the market and make the process of travelling to the UAE simpler because of job hunting which could impair or underwrite the importance of tourism to the country.

On the side of the jobseeker:

If the new visa rule is to be implemented (I am confident it will be), thousands of jobseekers will be greatly affected. Why? Who will spend AED 1,000 + health insurance and try his luck in Dubai under this current crisis? There’s nothing in Dubai but “uncertainties”. The economy is not stable (true also to some cities). Many companies are shutting down. On this issue, how can a jobseeker be sure that when he enters Dubai he can be employed? For me, I will not gamble.


On the side of the employer:

The new visa rule means potential employers and recruitment agencies will have to go abroad to find workers to avoid labour shortages. Employers are never going to pay money up front for people to come and visit, because they don’t know if they are going to take on the person or not. Employers will have to go to the countries concerned to select people and hire them from there.

It will be more costly for employers because they will have to fly in people to start working. There will be less people coming in to look for work because the fee is a lot of money, so companies will chose to recruit from countries of origin.

What might happen is that it might be a quicker recruitment process, because employers and recruiters might carry out interviews over the phone. If employers don’t want to make the decision there and then through a telephone interview and want to do it face-to-face, they will have to fly the person out, pay for their visit visa and their accommodation. So it will probably be more costly for employers.

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HOW RECESSION AFFECTS UAE?

This is a forwarded e-mail from my friend, Vinoj. For Vinoj, thank you so much for sharing this information. This is all about the projects in the United Arab Emirates which are currently on-hold or canceled. Some of these projects are owned by giant companies like Nakheel, which is a semi-government company. This is how recession affects the country. Many have lost their job especially in the field of real estate. Many have whined but this is the reality - it's not only affecting few people. It's affecting all of us. PLEASE CLICK THE PICTURE TO ENLARGE.



How far this recession go? If you have any bright ideas please feel free to comment on this post.

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Coping with global crisis

The global financial crisis of 2008–2009 is an ongoing major financial crisis. It became prominently visible in September 2008 with the failure, merger, or conservatorship of several large United States-based financial firms. The underlying causes leading to the crisis had been reported in business journals for many months before September, with commentary about the financial stability of leading U.S. and European investment banks, insurance firms and mortgage banks consequent to the subprime mortgage crisis.
Beginning with failures of large financial institutions in the United States, it rapidly evolved into a global credit crisis, deflation and sharp reductions in shipping resulting in a number of European bank failures and declines in various stock indexes, and large reductions in the market value of equities (stock) and commodities worldwide. The credit crisis was exacerbated by Section 128 of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which allowed the Federal Reserve System to pay interest on excess reserve requirement balances held on deposit from banks, removing the longstanding incentive for banks to extend credit instead of hoard cash on deposit with the Fed. The crisis led to a liquidity problem and the de-leveraging of financial institutions especially in the United States and Europe, which further accelerated the liquidity crisis, and a decrease in international shipping and commerce. World political leaders and national ministers of finance and central bank directors have coordinated their efforts to reduce fears but the crisis is ongoing and continues to change, evolving at the close of October into a currency crisis with investors transferring vast capital resources into stronger currencies such as the yen, the dollar and the Swiss franc, leading many emergent economies to seek aid from the International Monetary Fund. The crisis was triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis and is an acute phase of the financial crisis of 2007–2009.

Since the global financial crisis started mainly in the United States, ways, actions and strategies must start also in the US. Let me cite some ways of coping with this global dilemma that the US had already started or should have started.

The Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Securities and Exchange Commission took several steps on September 19 to intervene in the crisis. To stop the potential run on money market mutual funds, the Treasury also announced on September 19 a new $50 billion program to insure the investments, similar to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) program. Part of the announcements included temporary exceptions to section 23A and 23B (Regulation W), allowing financial groups to more easily share funds within their group. The exceptions would expire on January 30, 2009, unless extended by the Federal Reserve Board. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced termination of short-selling of 799 financial stocks, as well as action against naked short selling, as part of its reaction to the mortgage crisis.

The US must work quickly in a bipartisan fashion to resolve this crisis and restore its financial sector so capital is flowing again and it can avert an even broader economic catastrophe. It also should recognize that economic recovery requires the US to act, not just to address the crisis on Wall Street, but also the crisis on Main Street and around kitchen tables across America.

Even if the Treasury recovers some or most of its investment over time, this initial outlay of up to $700 billion is sobering. And in return for their support, the American people must be assured that the deal reflects some basic principles.

• No blank check. If the US grants the Treasury broad authority to address the immediate crisis, it must insist on independent accountability and oversight. Given the breach of trust it had seen and the magnitude of the taxpayer money involved, there can be no blank check.

• Rescue requires mutual responsibility. As taxpayers are asked to take extraordinary steps to protect US financial system, it is only appropriate to expect those institutions that benefit to help protect American homeowners and the American economy. American people cannot underwrite continued irresponsibility, where CEOs cash in, regulators look the other way. The US cannot abet and reward the unconscionable practices that triggered this crisis. It has to end them.

• Taxpayers should be protected. This should not be a handout to Wall Street. It should be structured in a way that maximizes the ability of taxpayers to recoup their investment. Going forward, the US needs to make sure that the institutions that benefit from financial insurance also bear the cost of that insurance.

• Help homeowners stay in their homes. This crisis started with homeowners and they bear the brunt of the nearly unprecedented collapse in housing prices.

• A global response. This is a global financial crisis and it requires a global solution. The United States must lead, but it must also insist that other nations, who have a huge stake in the outcome, join the US in helping to secure the financial markets.

• Main Street, not just Wall Street. The American people need to know that they should feel the great sense of urgency about the emergency on Main Street as they do the emergency on Wall Street. American leaders must extend their hands in supporting an emergency economic plan for working families — a plan that would help folks cope with rising gas and food prices, save one million jobs through rebuilding schools and roads, help states and cities avoid painful budget cuts and tax increases, and provide retooling assistance to help ensure that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built in America.

• Build a regulatory structure for the 21st century. While there is not time in a week to remake US regulatory structure to prevent abuses in the future, Americans should commit themselves to the kind of reforms. They need new rules of the road for the 21st century economy, together with the means and willingness to enforce them.

The bottom line is that America must change the economic policies that led it down this dangerous path in the first place. For the last eight years, America had an 'on your own-anything goes' philosophy in Washington and on Wall Street that lavished tax cuts on the wealthy and big corporations; that viewed even common-sense regulation and oversight as unwise and unnecessary; and that shredded consumer protections and loosened the rules of the road. Ordinary Americans are now paying the price.
(Note: I do not claim the originality of this text.

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EU's struggle to maintain border-free market

With British strikes against foreign workers and France hinting at protectionism in the car sector, the economic crisis is putting the EU’s golden rules of free movement of workers and trade to the test.

So far the European Commission has played its role as guardian of the European Union’s treaties, defending the bloc’s single border-free market for goods, services and labor.

In the face of British wildcat strikes against Italian and Portuguese energy sector workers, the EU executive said last week that it’s not in creating barriers and trying to hold back the single market that protects Britain against the crisis. It also warned against French plans to support the car industry, after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said there would be no aid for carmakers that turn around and open a new factory in Czech Republic or somewhere else.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the EU’s presidency, hit back with serious doubts about political involvement in the management of commercial companies and breach of rules of free competition.

Taking France’s lead, Italy announced similar conditions for aid to its automobile industry. The trend is putting growing pressure on the commission to be more flexible about government support for struggling industries just as its president Jose Manuel Barroso and other senior staff seek second mandate.

While unemployment rockets in Spain, Italy and Greece have already seen riots. Meanwhile the temptation of populist policies in Eastern Europe could become huge as the religion’s dream of catching up with western countries evaporates.

The Commission which the policies EU members’ public finances has already been easing up on governments about their deficits, which have spiraled in the face of costly bank bail-outs and economic stimulus measures. Under pressure from several countries, the commission has accepted that governments’ deficits will balloon well over the three per cent of output that they are supposed to respect.

So far the European Commission has been quite good at defending. Nobody is even remotely saying that the EU should not have free trade and that free movement of workers should stop.

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ARE YOU AFRAID TO LOSE YOUR JOB?

Well, for all those who got the most rewarding job in their life, recession may not affect them. Even their company decides to fire them they may have nothing to worry because all those good years of their service, they have stored enough reserves for this kind of contingency. But for those starters, this time is tough.

According to the latest report, in the United States of America alone, only five metropolitan areas will escape job losses this year. Ithaca, N.Y.; Fairbanks, Alaska; and St. George, Utah, are among the handful of the nation's 363 metropolitan areas expected to see employment remain flat or increase slightly.

New York is expected to take the biggest hit as thousands of jobs are lost on Wall Street. Big financial firms are slashing workers as they cope with bad debt. Other companies have gone under, like Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in September.

Report said that New York area is expected to lose 181,000 jobs. The Los Angeles area is expected to see 164,000 lost jobs, in part because of the huge drop in home prices that has punctured the California economy. After New York and Los Angeles, the Miami area is expected to see the greatest loss, with a decline of 85,000 jobs. Chicago and the surrounding area are next, with losses projected at 80,000.

Unemployment is expected to top 10 percent in 70 areas, from already hard-hit cities like Detroit and Cleveland to places that had until recently been prosperous like the Riverside-San Bernardino area in California. Other big cities like Denver and St. Louis are expected to see unemployment rise above 9 percent.

For all of us who are still harvesting the fruit of our labor, we must have the courage to take the risks, and remain loyal to the company. God has plan for all of us.

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