UAE has achieved quantum leap in government services

Abu Dhabi / WAM

The UAE government has made, over the past several years, conscious efforts towards moving to a more sustainable future, setting its sights on delivering services that would rival the best in the world, and investing in significant performance improvements to ensure social welfare and economic well-being.
The upward path of the UAE in world competitiveness testifies to the great strides taken on this score, with the country ranked the seventh most competitive economy in the world in 2018, its best ranking ever, according to the IMD World Competitiveness Centre’s 2018 data which showed that the UAE secured No. 1 ranking in 20 indicators and achieved top positions in several others.
Within this context, the country has always been determined to transfer its knowledge and experience in optimising government performance to other friendly and sisterly nations, including, but not limited to, Egypt, Jordan, and Uzbekistan.
February 2018 saw the signing of an agreement between the UAE and Egypt for cooperation in the development of government work.
The cooperation was a new step in the distinguished relations between the two countries. Translating the two countries’ vision on the importance of developing government work to serve the society through innovation and effective cooperation, the agreement sought to share common experience and knowledge in governance, and develop government work and services as well as improve institutional capacities, while overseeing the development of synergies in the areas covered by the agreement, to ensure the exchange of experience and knowledge transfer in governance capacity building, performance development, innovation, excellence, and leadership in a way that contributes to achieving Egypt Vision 2030.
With the support and participation of the Government of the UAE, Egypt hosted the Egypt Government Excellence Conference 2018. The UAE’s effective contribution to the event demonstrated its government’s keenness to forge a strong strategic government partnership between the two countries, step up cooperation and strengthen the long-standing and deep-rooted relations between the two sides across various fields.
The event represented a culmination of efforts of the two countries to activate their strategic partnership in modernising government work, improving the quality and accessibility of government services, boosting training capabilities, and enhancing the performance of government institutions and their employees. Overall, the conference provided an ideal opportunity for Egypt to learn from the UAE’s success story in achieving a quantum leap in government services, investment in human resources, competence-building and talent development in the public sector, which were some of the key topics of the Conference.
On the Arab level, June 2018 saw the signing of an MoU with Jordan for the development of the government apparatus’ performance and improve its services.
The agreement recognised the importance of developing government services to benefit citizens and service recipients, as well as strengthen institutional capacity and mutual benefit in the development of government work. The areas of cooperation were based on the exchange of expertise, experiences and best practices in the fields of developing government services, smart services, managing and evaluating institutional performance, innovation and excellence, building and developing leadership and capabilities, in addition to cooperation in the field of government development through knowledge transfer and benefit from mutual experiences in these areas.
On the international level, the UAE signed with Uzbekistan an agreement to modernise and develop their government work, strengthen their partnership, and improve the performance of their government sectors, during the visit of a UAE government delegation to Uzbekistan.
The three-year agreement is aimed to form joint technical committees to regulate its adoption, and includes 17 areas that focus on improving services and institutional performance, creating and training leaders, strengthening adequacies, adopting a working system based on innovation and excellence, transferring government expertise and knowledge, and reviewing the best government practices.