Labour ministry, partners develop 'first-of-its-kind' nationalisation AI algorithm

The Ministry of Labour (MoL), in partnership with United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Microsoft and PwC Middle East in Qatar, has announced that its Technical Office has created an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm/model that will serve the nationalisation programme and at the same time support the private sector.The focus of the Transformation Management Office is not only to digitise and transform user services offered by the ministry but also to innovate solutions through the use of agile software development, digital cloud and other emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning to provide customers and stakeholders with a seamless user experience, and has a mutual positive business impact in Qatar, a press statement notes. The Transformation Management Office is led by Salim al-Barami, strategic planning and digital transformation adviser at HE the Minister’s office, and who has innovated the algorithm.The first of its kind, the model will transform nationalisation in the private sector thanks to its interactive nature that calculates nationalisation percentages in a tailored way for each company in Qatar.Its goal is to balance the economic impact on businesses, reduce any potential negative impact on both the industry and the government. Salem Musallam al-Barami, strategic planning consultant and transformation office mannger, confirmed that the ESCWA has supported the ministry on tasks related to creating labour market analytics, detecting fourth industrial revolution skills in Qatar, and developing the foundation of a state-of-the-art matching platform for nationals based on ESCWA’s Skills Monitor.Now, ESCWA and the MoL are creating a model that can optimise the number of national employees per firm. It is built on a scientific model using state-of-the-art AI. Dr Rola Dashti, UN under-secretary-general and ESCWA’s executive secretary, said: "ESCWA is proud to support the Ministry of Labour in building an automated model that uses artificial intelligence to detect the level of Qatarisation in private sector firms. The model will be built using the ministry’s depository of employee structure in the Qatari private sector.”Lana Khalaf, general manager of Microsoft Qatar, said: "As part of our strategic partnership with the Ministry of Labour, we are proud to be the technology provider empowering the ministry with ethical artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to realise the objectives of the jobs nationalisation programme. Qatar will be the first country in the region to achieve a smart nationalisation initiative utilising the power of AI.”Bassam Hajhamad, country senior partner at PwC in Qatar, added: "We are very proud to be part of this important initiative, critical to transforming the labour force in Qatar, building new skills, and enabling true transformation at the national and sector levels, as part of Qatar National Vision 2030. At PwC, we remain very committed to our strategic partnership with the MoL, delivering actionable and sustained outcomes.”