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29 March 2024

Arabic mandatory for UAE commercial, service sectors

Calls received during Q3 2014 included 396 calls about women and children victims of violence. (Shutterstock)

Published
By Staff

Arabic will be mandatory for the commercial and service sectors in the UAE as of January 2015, according to the Ministry of Economy.

According to an ‘Emarat Al Youm’ report, call centres and customer servicing in commercial and service sectors will be obliged to fully Arabise their issued invoices.

The ministry is quoted as saying that the deadline for the use of the Arabic language in all call centers and for customer service is December 31, 2014.

The ministry confirmed that it will impose fines on non-compliant centres.

The UAE Cabinet took a decision in 2008 that all ministries and institutions in the UAE will adopt the Arabic language as the official language in all of its work.
 

Lack of staff


Dr. Hachim Al Nuaimi, Director of the Department of Consumer Protection, said in statements in Abu Dhabi yesterday, that "there is a continuation of the phenomenon of non-use of Arabic language in conversation in many call centres and customer service centres in the business and service sector to date”.

He said there is still a significant shortfall in staffing, whether citizens or expatriates speaking Arabic.

Al Nuaimi said that a recent study by the Ministry of Economy showed that the average of Arabic spoken at call centres and for customer service in the UAE stood at 64 per cent.

However, the study indicated that call centres, electronics agencies and maintenance centres recorded the lowest rate of using Arabic with 48 per cent.