By Anwar Elshamy
A recent study has raised concern over the declining productivity rates in Qatar, saying that the low man-hour output constitutes a major challenge to sustainable development in the country.
The study, which was issued by the Population Committee at the General Secretariat for Development Planning, said that the average productivity per hour in the country had declined from 4.8% between 1990 and 2000 to 1.8% between 2000 and 2007, which the study blamed on the labour market policy.
“This is very low compared to what has been achieved by China (10.1%), Bahrain (5.13%), India (4.1%) and Oman (4.18%) in 2007,” the study added, citing findings of a report recently issued by the Conference Board, an international business and research organisation. 
The study held the large numbers of the low-skilled expatriate workforce responsible for the low output per hour experienced by the country.
“What is alarming is that over half of the expatriate workforce (55.9%) are either uneducated or below secondary education level,” it said.
The study warned against the low participation by the national workforce in the private sector, “which has been in full control of the expatriate workforce”.
“One can hardly find another country in the world where foreigners fully control the private sector as is the case in Qatar. This situation should be seriously considered when it comes to developing the labour market policy,” the study said.
It added that the recruitment of nationals in the private sector should be “dealt with as a highly significant issue for the community and the national economy, which requires a change of the labour culture among citizens toward the private sector”.
While the study estimated the participation of the national workforce in the public sector at 44.5%, it put their presence in the private sector at 0.60%.
“This actually means that 99.40% of the private sector jobs are manned by expatriate workforce,” the study added.
The study recommended for diversifying investments away from the real estate sector which needs a large number of expatriate workforce.
It also called for adopting capital intensive technology in almost all the development projects, “which will decrease the reliance on the expatriate workforce especially those who are unskilled”.
Calling for correcting  what it described as an “imbalance in the workforce structure”, the study said that the ratio of technicians and professionals on whom the “desired economic transformation relies” account only for 8.9% of the total number of the workforce in Qatar.
“Despite the big change that took place in the workforce structure during the last decade, the situation is still far from meeting the requirements of both development process and labour market which still attracting large number of expatriate labour,” the study added, citing that the ratio of technicians in the developed countries ranged between 20 and 30%.
The study also indicated that there was a “gradual decline” in fertility rates of Qatari women from 5.7% (children per each woman) in 1990 to 4% in 2007.