The UAE and other Gulf countries, which are facing acute shortage of workers, are looking at countries like Bangladesh and Nepal to get labourers needed to complete mega projects worth a whopping USD 1.9 trillion, reports PTI In the past, the majority of the semi and unskilled construction workers were from India, but the number is dwindling since construction industry in India is growing rapidly and with the increasing value of rupee against the dirham, companies are finding it difficult to convince recruits from India to take up jobs in the Gulf.

Recruitment agencies in the GCC are tapping into new labour markets, including Bangladesh, Nepal and Vietnam, in an effort to solve the problem. Recruitment of workers from Bangladesh has increased by 100 percent compared to previous years, with more workers from the country coming to the UAE during the first two months of 2008 than the whole of 2007.

Riad Kamal, CEO of Arabtec, UAE’s leading construction company, says that “it is up to us to try to give the labour force what is due and try to maintain a level of wages that is compatible with the rise of the cost of living and with the currency issues. I think the last unrest was handled by the companies concerned very positively.”

There was a massive strike at Arabtec’s major project at Burj Dubai in October last year, involving 40,000 workers. “The rise in the labour wages was natural, and I can’t say that anyone was really against it. We are all sympathetic to the issues of wages, and I think it was treated very well. I think there will be more increases in the future and the market should be prepared for it,” he said in remarks to Emirates Business.

Asked if the company would like to hire workers from regions other than India in order to limit future unrest, Kamal said, although it is a good thing to diversify the source of labour so you don’t rely on one market for all your activity, I think that India will always be a major source of our labour.

“The bulk of the labour source is Indian, and I think that India should be the place for establishing the parameters of compensation and wages. If you bring in labour from Korea or China or Vietnam, you are talking about a different structure of wages and therefore that is not going to solve the problem,” he said.

According to a study by the Project Management Institute (PMI), said construction projects in the GCC planned for the next two years would require five million workers. Majeed Al Gassab, President of the Bahrain Society of Engineers and the Vice-President of the Bahrain’s PMI chapter, said the movement of workers away from the GCC has already started and immediate measures have to be put in place to retain remaining staff and find new sources for recruitment. Based on the expected workload, it was estimated that construction activities in the Gulf may reach the peak at about 12 billion man hours in 2010. This is equivalent to about five million labourers, said Al Gassab.

It is evident skilled workers are already moving out of the Gulf for better opportunities and it will be a great risk to carry on with inexperienced labourers, he added. While the shortage is more intense in the semi and unskilled labour sectors, agencies are also finding it difficult to recruit experienced engineers, project managers and architects.

As a result of the crunch, the average salary of a project manager in the UAE has increased from Dh35,000 to Dh45,000, while it has become difficult to find commercial and development managers for even Dh50,000. The GCC’s construction industry is valued at more than USD 1.9 trillion and according to news reports more than 160 construction projects in the UAE alone are delayed because of labour shortages.

Mohammad Jindran of Sharjah-based Overseas Labour Supply said there has been a severe drop of interest from Indian construction workers. We do not like to go to India for selection anymore as we only manage to get 30 percent of our requirement. India and Egypt remain the major exporters of professionals to the Arab world, the GCC states in particular. So the manpower shortage here could be serious with the former two countries witnessing a boom.

The problem is becoming more challenging in India with youngsters avoiding blue-collar industries like steel and entering the information technology (IT) sector en masse, said Suresh Thawani, from India-based Tata Sponge Iron Limited. There is a shift among youngsters in India from manufacturing to more sophisticated nano-technology and IT industries.

“So, efforts are to be made to woo them back to the metallurgical, electrical and mechanical industries,” Thawani said. Currently, there is a problem with regard to quality manpower in India but the industry remains unaffected, he said. Still, India has a huge potential to provide skilled manpower to the Gulf.

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