India's growth causing staff shortage in GCC

Economic growth in India is making it much harder for companies in the GCC to source skilled labour from the subcontinent, the chairman of Dubai-based healthcare conglomerate Dr Moopen's Group said on Tuesday.

Speaking on the eve of of India's independence celebrations, Azad Moopen warned that the problem would only get worse in the future as India's economy continues to expand.

"We are finding it difficult to get people from India," Moopen told ArabianBusiness.com. "In the long-term this is only going to get harder."

He said Dr Moopen's Group was finding it especially difficult recruiting staff because there is such a heavy reliance on highly skilled workers in the healthcare industry.

"’I've found it extremely difficult. We require highly skilled people, and because the salaries here are now comparable to what you could get in India [it is becoming a problem]," he said.

The GCC is facing a potentially serious problem in recruiting skilled workers from India because of the plummeting value of the dollar against the rupee and India's booming economy.

There are approximately six million Indians living in the GCC and they account for as much as 50% of the expatriate workforce in some Gulf countries.

The growing value of the rupee against the dollar, which most countries in the GCC have their currencies pegged to, is making the Gulf a less attractive destination for Indians to work.

India's booming economy means there are many more jobs available that previously, which is also deterring Indian's from working in the region.

Last month a senior official at Bahrain's Labour Fund revealed that it had seen a marked rise in the number of Indians leaving the kingdom to return home.

Bahrain is currently struggling with a shortage of accountants and the government is also assessing the severity of skills shortages in other sectors such as information technology.

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