Hiring Of Foreign Labour No Threat
By Sobrina Rosli

Bandar Seri Begawan - Bringing in foreign nationals to help man the engines of economic growth should not pose a threat to a country that needs it for so long as this is matched with initiatives to develop its own human resource, a business expert from the Middle East said yesterday.

"I have no problem with the policy of bringing in foreign labour so long as you have, hand in hand, the national development process for the nationals," said Sami Sindi, founding partner of Crescent Point and founder of Harvard Law School's Centre for Islamic Legal Studies.

He was speaking at a luncheon dialogue on "Reducing dependence on oil wealth: What the GCC economies are doing" organised by Asia Inc Forum with partners Total, HSBC and Alcoa.

"For us to expect to develop from scratch human resource capabilities which can interact in today's global world would be naive," he said.

"It is critical to bring in foreign labour, but it is also critical we develop local human resources that can learn from (foreign experts) and then go up in the rank and then take over," he added.

The two key challenges faced by countries trying to diversify its economy away from a single source of revenue, such as the Gulf states and possibly Brunei, is the availability of well-trained and educated human resources and being able to attain a clear and comprehensive legal system

"(Human resource) is a problem one never puts much focus on, the solution really has been to build more schools and classrooms but there was never really anyone who went to discover what is really needed," said Sami Sindi. But this takes time to attain, he said, noting that training an individual is a 30-year programme starting from pre-school years.

"If you have not trained a person from primary and secondary education you have pretty much lost the battle, he said.

"If I were to say, what is the fundamental flaw in the discussions I have heard in economies that are trying to diversify from a single revenue source, is we're missing the point. We are trying to force solutions that introduce inefficiencies," he added.

During the dialogue, Sami was asked what the catalyst were for formerly inward-looking states such as Kuwait and Qatar to open up.

"I think the starting point was Dubai. It showed the rest of the Gulf that there is a way to develop an economy, open it up and it is not going to destroy the fabric of the nation and does not require the government to put up the capital, you can attract the capital in the right environment," he said.

The issue of wage disparity between the private and public sectors was also raised.

"The problem that we have constantly, certainly in the Gulf and I would imagine it is the same over here, is that the government feels responsible to take care of its people and say I need to give them employment," he said.

Sami added that there needs to be a statement saying, 'I will take what I need' otherwise employment in the public sector will create inefficiencies and unwanted trends such as corruption. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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