In presence of Sultan Al Neyadi and institutional leaders and young entrepreneurs
Rashid Bin Humaid Majlis hosts Arab Youth Center evening on pioneers reality and aspirations in Arab labor market
Rashid bin Humaid: Arab region is rich in promising opportunities capable of competing and excelling by investing in youth energy
The Majlis of His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Municipality and Planning Department – Ajman, and Vice President of the Arab Youth Center, hosted a special evening organized by the Arab Youth Center themed “Arab Youth between Labor Market Aspirations and Entrepreneurial Hopes”. It eyed the participation of His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Neyadi, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, and a host of international and regional institutional leaders, in addition to a number of Emirati and Arab entrepreneurs.
Fadi Ghandour, CEO of Wamda Group, Ali Matar, President of MENA LinkedIn, and Engineer Mohammad Abul Naga Nagaty, Partner and CEO of Exeltis Middle East, spoke during the evening.
His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi welcomed the attendees, congratulating them on the remainder of the holy month. “Today, we are living in a rapidly growing and moving era. We must keep pace with and adapt to the progress and development so as to achieve the aspirations of our government and our societies. Given our goals, we must work with great determination and persistence to make them tangible .Today, we have great successful example in our Arab world, the most prominent of which is Sultan Al Neyadi, the first Arab to serve on the International Space Station for a 6-month mission, an achievement we take pride in and is recorded in the history of all Arabs, and which could not have been accomplished thanks to God first then to the government’s support and Sultan’s determination to succeed,” His Highness said.
His Highness added, “Great challenges and myriad obstacles are in the way of young pioneers. However, we are making accomplishments that will bring good to the Arab world,” stressing that the Arab region is rich in promising opportunities and is capable of competing and excelling by investing in the energy of youth.”
His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Neyadi, Minister of State for Youth Affairs, thanked His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi for his rich Majlis, referring to the necessity of keeping pace with present changes to ensure youth progress at a steady pace towards the future, and stressing the importance for entrepreneurs to focus on education, acquire skills, and measure the material and moral proceeds from of projects, in addition to benefit from the favorable environment provided by the United Arab Emirates supporting emerging projects and attracting young talents.
For his part, and Engineer Mohammad Abul Naga Nagaty asserted that the follower of His Highness Sheikh Rashid realizes how close His Highness is to the youth, not only as a young leader who held important positions such as presiding over the Emirates Football Association, and his role today as Vice President of the Arab Youth Center, and his rich Majlis, which has become an annual hub for cultural, economic and media discussions. This evening is distinguished by the presence of His Excellency Dr. Sultan Al Neyadi, who is now playing a very important role as Minister of Youth in the UAE, showing keenness to be part of this Ramadan evening.
In turn, Fadi Ghandour hailed the great position that the UAE has reached in attracting talent and startups, attributing this to the wisdom and flexibility enjoyed by the State’s leaders. “There is no doubt that the Arab world has changed a lot. Our markets are eyeing developments, the first of which is the availability of capital. We see the sovereign funds of governments and the personal funds of major business families, in addition to the availability of infrastructure to invest in startups,” Ghandour said.
He added: “Any startup wishing to expand must get into new markets and attract emerging talent. Today, especially post-pandemic, we see large number of young people and great talents globally seeking to enter the Emirati market, as the UAE is not only an attraction for young people in the region, but also a center to go global and facilitate procedures for companies around the globe.”
On the role of artificial intelligence, Ghandour referred to the importance of considering our strategies. The “big” challenge for governments is to develop a strategy that understands the importance of artificial intelligence and uses it for the benefit of jobs in a manner that helps us save time and effort fearing nothing, to solve more important and more complex challenges, Ghandour stressed.
For his part, Ali Matar stressed that LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform and has more than a billion members around the world. “This allows us to have statistics that we can share. According to statistics, the global economic situation indicates that the growth rate in employment in the UAE rose by 6% in 2024 compared to 3% in 2023.
Another statistic revealed that every leaver of the State’s market is replaced with two joiners,” Matar said, revealing that the UAE ranks eighth globally in attracting talent artificial intelligence.
He pointed out that every person starting their own business now must follow three standards; skill as one, education as two, and considering financial return as three. He added that LinkedIn has a partnership with the Ministry of Economy, and through a joint study it has been found that the most successful people are those who failed the first time and then succeeded later, because they succeeded in solving a problem. Information also revealed that 75% of entrepreneurs close their businesses then reopen them.
Matar stressed that artificial intelligence is actually impacting jobs at the present time, and will highly impact them in the future, noting that there are many jobs relying on artificial intelligence, and it has been found that 42% of people believe that the impact of artificial intelligence has already begun to affect their jobs.
Matar urged young people to take advantage of the great opportunities provided by the LinkedIn platform for young people, whether they are fresh business owners, job seekers, or wishing to acquire new skills, and to keep working on developing their capabilities to prepare for various opportunities.
