NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

ID card deadline fades out of reach

DUBAI - JAN 27: Expatriate professionals applying for the national identity card will not be able to book an appointment until after the Feb 28 deadline, as the system struggles to cope with the number of last-minute applicants.

A call centre representative for the Emirates Identity Authority (Eida) confirmed yesterday that there were no appointments available until Mar 19.

Emirates Marketing and Promotions (EMP), which was brought in to help process the hundreds of thousands of applications before the deadline, said a rush in December had created a backlog.

Extra staff have been put on to process applications made in post offices, which EMP said increased five-fold last month, with 85 full-time staff working to ease the problem.

Many of last month’s post office applications have still not been processed and people have voiced concern that they had been lost in the system.

The chief executive officer of EMP, Ahmed Tahlak, moved to reassure them: “If the application has not been processed, we will retrieve the file and make it a top priority.”

On-line applications have also been delayed.

EMP, a subsidiary of Emirates Post Holdings Group, started taking applications in October. Forms were made available in post offices and processed before staff booked appointments for applicants at Eida offices.

It was hoped the arrangement would relieve some of the pressure on Eida offices, which had become overrun each day.

Mr Tahlak said there had been a rush of applications to meet the old Dec 31 deadline, which had since been pushed to Feb 28 for white-collar expatriates and Mar 31 for UAE nationals.

“We had to prioritise those who had their deadline at the end of the December. We ask all people to be patient for the next three weeks,” he said.

Mr Tahlak asked people who had been waiting for a response to contact EMP and check the status of the application. “For the next two weeks we have called in extra staff to deal with the backlog,” he said.

EMP has processed more than 220,000 applications and can process between 7,000 and 8,000 applications a day, with each staff member processing 80 to 90 each shift.

Eida says it is capable of registering 7,000 applicants a day nationally. Its latest figures show 800,000 people have applied for the card, including 650,000 Emiratis. An estimated 150,000 more Emiratis and 250,000 expatriates have not registered.

Applicants who miss the deadline will be registering with the next phase of applicants, who will have priority for appointments. Administrative workers, including secretaries, translators, typists and shopkeepers, and expatriates employed in the hotel, restaurant and tourism industries can start to apply from Mar 1.

Registration will start for the country’s estimated three million construction workers in October.

An on-line appointment-booking system was launched last week, allowing people to go to a calendar and select a date and time at a specific Eida centre. But there are no appointments available until mid-March.

Thamer al Qasemi, the planning director of Eida, said if there were no times for appointments with the new system, people should just walk in to the centres.

“People are saying they are not going to register and thinking the centres are too crowded,” Mr al Qasemi said.

“It is not true. If there are no time slots available, we ask people to walk in.”

Mr al Qasemi said that for every 3,500 applications, Eida received only 15 complaints. “If there are any particular complaints, I ask them to log on to our website and register a complaint,” he said.

Karen Sinclear, a media executive in Dubai, said she and her husband applied through EMP’s postal service just before December but had yet to receive any feedback.

Catherine Blackmore, a school teacher based in Sharjah, was told there were no appointments available for January and February after she phoned Eida.

“I was told to wait for either an SMS or an e-mail for an appointment and I am still waiting,” Ms Blackmore said.

Clare O’Hare, a lawyer, walked into the Karama centre only to be told to wait for the online revamp that began last week. “There were only a handful of people at the centre, but I assumed the appointments must have been booked up and that people were only coming in when their appointment time arrived,” Ms O’Hare said.

She later phoned the Eida’s help line to see if she could get an appointment, only to be told it was fully booked until March.

Indians hear solemn message at Republic Day celebrations

ABU DHABI - JAN 27:The Indian president, Pratibha Patil, marked the country’s 60th Republic Day with a call for resilience in the face of the recent militant attacks in Mumbai and mounting economic troubles.

In a speech read by the ambassador to the UAE, Talmiz Ahmad, to dozens of Indian expatriates at the embassy yesterday, the president took stock of a difficult year on the subcontinent.

“We have witnessed, in the last year, major events in the financial and security scenario both at the global and the national level – terrorism and violence, natural disasters, volatility of oil and food prices, and a global economic slowdown,” she said.

The president also called for greater integrity on the part of the Indian corporate and financial community, in an apparent reference to the recent auditing debacle at Satyam, a global information technology services company based in Hyderabad that analysts have called India’s own Enron scandal and has shaken confidence in the country’s emerging corporate system.

She also declared Jan 24 next year National Girl Child Day, to highlight “the gender bias prevalent in our society”.

Before reading the president’s speech, Mr Ahmad hoisted the Indian flag at the embassy, located in the diplomatic quarter off Airport Road.

“This is a special day for us Indians and those who wish India well. Our relationship with the UAE is extremely substantial, as our neighbour and partner in political and economic ties,” said the ambassador in his own speech, which highlighted ties with the UAE.

“India will be able to cope really well but we are conscious that we are part of the global economy,” he added.

Venu Rajamony, the Indian consul general in Dubai, read the president’s speech at the consulate and hoisted the Indian flag, before hosting a cultural programme at his residence.

Republic Day, which marks the day India adopted its constitution, is also known as an occasion for prominent expatriate Indians to mingle and talk about both community projects and business.

At the India Social and Cultural Centre, businessmen gathered for a breakfast meeting. Before they sat down to eat, Yusuffali MA, the managing director of Emke Group, and BR Shetty, the managing director of the New Medical Centre, hoisted an Indian flag on the roof.

It was the first ceremony for the newly built centre, which has 2,400 members, but has yet to be formally inaugurated.

“Our job is to promote healthy Indo-UAE ties and we look forward to bilateral visits from both countries this year that will further establish economic and cultural relations,” said Mr Yusuffali.

At Indian schools across the country, students hoisted the flag in early morning ceremonies before being given the rest of the day off.

In India, colourful floats from each of the country’s 29 states wound their way towards the ancient Red Fort from India Gate. Ms Patil watched the parade, which included a military display, with the visiting president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Various Indian social committees, including the Indian Ladies Association, will also stage another cultural programme at the India Social and Cultural Centre in Abu Dhabi this evening to mark the holiday.

Airshow takes wing in Al Ain

AL AIN - JAN 27:T he peaceful blue skies over Al Ain will be riven this week by the high-octane roar of the aeronautical equivalent of Formula One as the Aero GP comes to the Middle East for the first time.

The new event, which runs from Wednesday to Saturday and is expected to attract 130,000 spectators, raises the curtain on an international aerobatic calendar that is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

The Aero GP, which consists of three events, brings together some of the world’s best pilots for tests of precision flying.

Zoltan Veres, 46, one of the favourites to win the GP, described it as the ultimate test of flying.

“The Aero GP is unique because pilots race against each other rather than a clock,” he said. “The first discipline is the pylon race. This is an air race around a marked course where the winner is the first to cross the line.

“It’s like a road race except we fly at over 500kph – at times only five metres above the ground.”

The second part, called barnstorming, involves various aerial challenges, including aerobatics, low-level obstacle courses, and target bombing, among other aerial stunts.

The final segment is a dogfight. Most popular with spectators, it recreates the duels of the Second World War. The planes track each other and get in position to fire. The umpire then judges whether a strike has been made and, if it has, a smoke trail is emitted from the shot plane. Three strikes and a plane is out.

Jeff Zaltman, the founder of Aero GP, said the Al Ain airshow was the ideal venue for the new sport becaause of the dune landscape.

“Al Ain has established a worldwide reputation since it established its airshow six years ago,” said Zaltman.
“It has brought new audiences and a new demographic to aerobatics and I think Aero GP will be popular. We are looking for pilots from the region and are seeking to carry out some pilot training in the UAE in the future.”

As well as the Aero GP, 15 stunt and aerobatic teams will be performing, including a glider team from Britain and a wing-walking acrobatic team from Scandinavia called the Skycats.

Planes on display range from one-quarter scale models that have miniature jet engines and cost around €30,000 (Dh141,000) and vintage Russian bi-planes to full-scale transcontinental airliners. Other entertainment includes a heritage village, paintball, a Mercedes test track and go-karting.

The event is co-sponsored by the UAE Air Force, which will display two fighters, including an F-16.

Tubo Didi, 42, a German who is flying his radio-controlled jet at the show, said he had seen how it encouraged people to take up flying.

“Every year I come I see more spectators and more people wanting to become involved in flying themselves. When the airshow started six years ago there were three jet pilots in the UAE, now there are around 15. It is becoming a centre for the sport.”

Khaled al Hashemi, the director of the administration division of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, said the event was not intended to make a profit but to develop tourism.

“The airshow will demonstrate that Al Ain has the infrastructure and facilities to host international events. It will have a worldwide audience who will hear of Al Ain and see that the emirate of Abu Dhabi has a range of tourist attractions and locations.

“The addition of the Aero GP this year demonstrates our ambition to make the Al Ain show the world’s most sought after aerobatic event.”

A shuttle bus will be provided to take people to the site from Al Ain civic centre. It will depart every 20 minutes from 3pm to 7.30pm throughout the duration of the show.

Monorail’s first outing a success

DUBAI - JAN 27:T he Middle East’s first monorail has made its first official journey, from the bottom of The Palm Jumeirah to the top.

It carried representatives from Nakheel, The Palm Jumeirah’s developer, and the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) from Gateway Station at the trunk of The Palm to Atlantis Aquaventure Station, a distance of 5.45km, in eight minutes.

Chris O’Donnell, the chief executive of Nakheel,, yesterday promised the driverless monorail would be ready to carry passengers by April as planned.

Although it will be fully automatic, an attendant will be on board at all times. The monorail will initially be able to carry 2,400 passengers an hour in each direction in four separate trains, each made up of three cars.
Eventually, nine trains will have a total capacity of 6,000 people an hour for each direction.

The monorail, built by Nakheel in conjunction with the RTA, will have two other stations at Trump International Hotel and Tower and the Palm Mall.

It will eventually connect to the Dubai Metro when the RTA’s Dh4 billion (US$1.09bn) Al Safooh tramline starts to operate.

Due for completion in 2011, the 14km Al Safooh line will run the length of Al Safooh Road, stopping at 19 stations, including Knowledge Village, Media City, Jumeirah Lakes Towers and the entrance to Palm Jumeirah.
Some residents of Palm Jumeirah remain unconvinced of the monorail’s usefulness.

“I’m a little confused about it, to be honest,” said Orna Theboul, an American livingin an apartment on the trunk of The Palm.

“If it’s only running until the beginning of the Palm, I would still need my car to get to work the rest of the way, so I don’t see why I would use it.

“If it does night runs, then it would make sense to use it to get from Atlantis to the bottom of the Palm at 3am, and if there were more than two stations available. But apart from that, there isn’t much use for it by residents.”

Irene Proimos, a South African who has been living on The Palm for three months, said: “I don’t think I would use the monorail personally, as it only takes me seven minutes to get to work and I need my car during the day, too.
“It is a great idea but at the same time there’s the issue of parking. There has to be available parking for [riders] and already there is a lack of parking available on The Palm.”

Mohammed Sadati, a resident of The Palm for two years, said: “If it gives me a better route, reduces the traffic and gives me a better way of getting home, then I would use it.”

The monorail has been designed to overcome a number of challenges including the extreme summer heat. Some 1,000m of the rail also runs over sea, and it has an almost silent track so as not to disturb The Palm’s residents.

“When we connect the Palm Monorail to the metro we will be able to offer passengers a seamless journey from Dubai International Airport to the hotels on Palm Jumeirah, using just one fare card,” said Abdulmajid al Khaja, the chief executive officer of the RTA.

Health investment omits staff

DUBAI - JAN 27: Huge investment in new hospitals will not pay off unless a looming shortfall in health professionals to staff them is addressed, experts attending the Arab Health Congress warned yesterday.

According to Proleads, a database of health care projects, about US$14 billion (Dh51.4bn) is being spent in the Gulf on new health care facilities. At the same time, the World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts a global shortage of 4.3 million healthcare workers.

The shortfall stems from a population that is rising as governments tighten regulations on who can work in the industry.

Experts at the opening day of the conference said that unless more money was invested in trained, experienced staff, the new facilities would never reach their potential.

The UAE, which has a major shortage, needs to focus on recruiting more staff rather than building new facilities, said Dr Mubashar Sheikh, the executive director of WHO’s global health workforce alliance.

“At the moment there is a double negative,” he said. “It is already short of workers, and we are also losing investment in these workers. Places like the Gulf need to come up with policies that address these issues.”

The UAE relies heavily on professionals from other countries, which can create a problem as standards can vary, he said.

“There are different backgrounds and different training levels,” he said. “We are getting a mix of health workers not necessarily meeting the expected health standards.”

The UAE would benefit from encouraging its local population to take up healthcare roles, he added.

“Countries like the UAE need to start investing in their indigenous people. But also investing internationally in the countries they are drawing all the staff from. A mix of local and migrant workers would be ideal.”

Statistics on the number of health staff in the UAE are very limited.

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA), which has 15,000 is in the process of relicensing every one of them to make sure they are up to standard. The DHA has become the only licensing body in the emirate and, while standards are improving, one consequence of the process is that some people will not meet the standard and need to be replaced.

Under the strategy, the DHA will draw up a comprehensive map outlining population, services and staff who provide them.

“Up until today we have not had a proper needs assessment,” said Dr Essa Kazim, head of DHA regulation. “We are not sure where there are areas of deficiency in terms of actual manpower geographically, within Dubai and in terms of specialities.”

The map will also be used to help guide investment, with building carried out in relation to the number of staff available. Dr Kazim said Dubai already sent Emiratis abroad for medical training.

Dr John Hylton, head of a Canadian consultancy firm, has been working in the Middle East assessing the potential crisis in health human resources.

He said the rapid rise in the population, the development of infrastructure and the desire for improved services was putting increasing stress on the region’s system.

He said those on the front line were affected by this, but warned it was “flying under the radar of the leadership”.

“It is not just a question of recruitment, it is about the high turnover of staff in the region,” he said. “We need to find the reasons for that to try and keep the staff we have.”

To boost the quality of staff coming to work in the UAE, many health investors have created partnerships with international health care groups.

For example Tawam Hospital, in Al Ain, is managed by John Hopkins Medicine in the US, while Mafraq Hospital, Abu Dhabi, is managed by Thailand’s Bumrungrand International.

There is no point “throwing money at high technology hospitals if there are not the people to work in them”, said Dr Kenneth Ouriel. The former chief executive of Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC), which is linked to the Cleveland Clinic in the US, is now senior vice president of the New York Presbyterian Hospital.

He said encouraging the UAE population to take up roles in health care was crucial to creating a sustainable health system.

“We used to have a volunteer programme at SKMC, which was very popular. These are very important in encouraging local people to enter health care,” he said. “But in the short term, if you want to attract top staff, you need to pay them enough and create a good working infrastructure which is well managed.

“People are more important than buildings; this is where the money should be going at the moment. Even things such as housing, in Abu Dhabi that was a huge problem. Where can the new staff afford to live?”

Simon Page, director of life sciences at IIR Middle East, said while the building industry in the region was suffering, not one hospital-related project had been cancelled or put on hold “as a direct result of the current global economic slowdown”.

Arab Health, hosted by conference organisers IIR Middle East, is running at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre until Thursday.