Dubai to create pension plan for expats

Source: gmanetwork.com

The city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be embarking on a landmark plan to create a pension plan for foreign workers there to make the city "a more attractive place to do business and live."

A report posted on news site Emirates 24|7 on Sunday quoted Ali Ibrahim, deputy director general for planning and development of Dubai's Department of Economic Development (DED), who disclosed that the agency is now in touch with "relevant" departments for the project, which "will cover both public and private sector foreign employees."

"You can say the project is nearly ready," he said in an interview with Albayan newspaper. "Once we complete negotiations with other departments, we will seek government approval so the project can be launched by the end of the year."

If the plan pushes through, Dubai will become "the first city in the region to create a pension fund for expatriates, who do not pay income taxes in [the] emirates," the report said.

It added that the project might "first cover employees in large companies and public establishments," as well as "companies which already provide pension to its expatriate employees."

Ibrahim said he believes that Dubai's move will influence "a trend to set up a federal pension fund [in all of UAE]," bit it will need support from various departments in the government, including its Ministry of Labour.

According to the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), some 636,154 Filipinos are based in the UAE as of 2010, making the Arab country the fourth top destination for Filipino expatriates.

Separate data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) ranked UAE as the second top destination in 2010, with more than 200,000 Filipino workers deployed there that year, most of them working as household helpers and nurses.