The Human Resources Directorate of Sharjah Government in collaboration with the American University of Sharjah, School of Business and Management, held the 1st International Conference on Human Capital and Sustainable Development from December 12-13, 2012. The two-day conference provided a platform for international leaders in the field of human resources and economy to share the latest development to improve economic and human resources policies as well as to increase job opportunities and employment, especially to increase the UAE human capital. The conference featured keynote presentations and panel discussions covering important topics such as UAE national labor force’s involvement in the private sector; educational output and labor market needs in the UAE; as well as relationship between human resources development and economic development.

Dr. Farooq Malik presented his paper titled “Current and proposed polices to increase the share of UAE nationals in the private sector” at the conference. The paper is a result of research sponsored by the Office of Research at Zayed University and documents key opportunities to develop the human capital in the UAE. The findings are well grounded in economic theory and are based on recent empirical evidence. The paper also documents similar issues in neighboring countries like Oman and Qatar, which provides some additional insight into these complex issues.

Brief Bio of Dr. Farooq Malik

Dr. Farooq Malik joined Zayed University as Associate Professor of Economics and Finance in August 2011. In August 2012, he was appointed as the Project Director for the Development of Human Capital in UAE at Zayed University. Before moving to Zayed University, he was Associate Professor of Finance (with tenure) at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Malik received his Ph.D. in Economics from Texas Tech University in 2000. His specific area of research has been in labor markets, applied macroeconomics, financial markets and time series econometrics. He has numerous publications in top tier economics and finance journals. His research work has been funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).