Dubai Customs receives 43,000 innovative ideas for development

DUBAI / WAM

Dubai Customs’ efforts towards stimulating innovation culminated in a new summit of generating quality ideas conducive to innovations that improve and take customs work to the next level. The total number of innovative ideas generated and submitted by employees since the launch of the e-suggest system in 2000 reached more than 43,000 until end of first half of 2020.
The ideas submitted by DC staff over this period translated into the development of 268 disruptive innovations covering all aspects of customs work, with the help of more than 75 in-house innovators and inventors. This has led Dubai Customs to receive over 130 local and global awards of excellence.
Dubai Customs staff developed 32 disruptive innovations last year, raising the number of innovations developed between 2010 and 2020 to 237. As a result, Dubai Customs had received over 127 local and global awards of excellence by the end of 2020.
Dubai Customs’ innovation systems received 83.9% happiness rate from employees and customers, while the rate of complaints on these systems stood at less than 1.4% which is an excellent achievement compared to the Government of Dubai’s permissible 10%. The percentage of ideas processed and followed up on within 15 business days is 92%, with 55% of these ideas qualified as feasible during the first half of 2021 of which 35% have been implemented.
Hussein Al Fardan, Director of Dubai Customs Innovation Center, said: “These achievements would not have been attained if it were not for the senior leadership’s belief in the importance of innovation and their encouragement for employees to constantly come up with new ideas and innovations that drive trade and customs business forward.”
This strategic vision has proved successful in placing Dubai Customs at the forefront of leading government organisations worldwide in terms of creativity and innovation, explained Al Fardan.
Dubai Customs launched in the first half of 2021 the first Innovation League between customs departments and centers to create a large competitive environment among them that supports the innovation process to put forward new ideas and innovations aimed at addressing the challenges faced by the department. In this perspective, the Innovation Center has concluded 38 workshops for the First Innovation League, including 25 inductions and 13
workshops to look into the challenges and opportunities.
In the next stage, teams participating in the tournament will come together to generate innovative solutions and ideas for these challenges. More than 180 customs officers and staff participated in these stages which resulted in 335 real customs challenges in various organizational units and functional levels.