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The cabinet also approved a range of initiatives and projects, submitted by Ohoud Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Happiness, as part of the national happiness programme.
The programme includes appointment of a CEO for happiness and positivity at all government bodies, and the establishment of councils for happiness and positivity at federal entities.
Certain hours will be allocated for happiness-related programmes and activities at the federal government and establishing offices for happiness and positivity as well. Customer service centres will be transformed into customer happiness centres. Special programmes are tailored to change government employees’ culture from serving customers to making them happy.
The programme also includes annual indexes, surveys and reports to measure happiness in all community segments. The National Programme for happiness and positivity was approved by Sheikh Mohammad earlier this month. The programme features a host of initiatives in three major areas, the first of which is the inclusion of happiness in the policies, programmes and services of all government bodies as well as the work environment.
The second area will be consolidating the values of positivity and happiness as a lifestyle in the UAE community and, finally, developing tools and indexes to gauge happiness levels.
The national happiness and positivity charter aims to establish the concept of happiness and positivity from the Emirati government’s perspective under which the UAE is committed to achieving happiness and positivity in society. All government bodies will have to work according to the charter in order to achieve this in a
perfect manner.
The cabinet also approved financing of federal universities and colleges as per performance, based on a special study to develop a funding mechanism in accordance with the best international practices and through the development of a package of performance that relies on more than one input to achieve the best compatibility between higher education and the needs in line with the national priorities of the labour market. The move comes within the government policies, initiatives and recommendations in this respect.
It endorsed the guide of unified financial procedures of the federal government for year 2016. It aims at upgrading the efficiency of government financial practices.
It also endorsed the country’s joining of consultancy centre on World Trade Centre law. It provides consultative legal services and training to over 42 member states.
The cabinet approved the air transport services agreement between the UAE with the governments of Togo, Lithuania, Chad, Sri Leone, South Sudan and Nicaragua. Meanwhile, it endorsed the agreement with Nigeria on security and
criminal issues.