Sounds more like pride than reason. When I was a CFI in California I had the chance to instruct one indian student. I was surprised to find out he didn't need an Instrument Rating, just something like 20 hrs hood time and some time in the Elite sim. He didn't need a Comm Multi, just 15 hours in a Seneca. The only formal courses he did was PPL and CPL SE w/o instrument, the rest was just stuff that had to be logged, not really learned and tested. Since their business was (and is) very valued in flight schools, there were no questions asked, we just focused on the 2 check rides and tried to cover as much as we could when meeting the other non-license requirements. He went from 0 time to A320 FO in 4-5 months, but he was hoping for a bigger jet.
I felt reassured knowing he would probably be flying with a 10,000 + hour captain teaching him what he didn't learn in his 4 month career as a pilot. Sounds like that could change.
It seems logical that they want to employ their own people, more so when the expat salaries are high, but it seems kind of abrupt, maybe not very well thought out. Lets hope it doesn't come back and bite them in the ass. What about insurance? Aren't there still strict hour minimums to act as PIC of one of these jets?
rcl