The General Secretariat of Dubai Executive Council organized over the past two weeks a series of workshops with governmental bodies within the frame of transition of Dubai Plan 2021 from development phase to implementation phase. During the last months of the past year, Plan teamwork initiated implementation phase of strategic programs with governmental bodies starting from identifying gaps and development areas according to performance report and addressing them by programs of priority with respective bodies over the previous months.
Workshops organize a one-day discussion for the main themes of the Plan separately:
- People: "City of Happy, Creative & Empowered People"
- Society: "An Inclusive & Cohesive Society"
- Experience: "The Preferred Place to Live, Work & Visit"
- Place: "A Smart & Sustainable City"
- Economy: "A Pivotal Hub in the Global Economy"
- Government: "A Pioneering and Excellent Government"
Success story
In this regard, Abdullah Al Shaibani, Secretary General of Dubai Executive Council said »We are pleased to announce launching Dubai Plan 2021 is a new phase of success story of the Emirate of Dubai. Plan was developed by a collective effort of private and governmental bodies and productive interaction between different members of the society and now the Plan moves from development phase to implementation phase. By efforts of all different sectors, we will build team spirit to achieve desirable objectives. Regular performance reports will be presented to senior leadership to be informed about progress of plan implementation and progress towards achieving targets«.
Team-Work Spirit
»like as all phases of Plan development, cooperative team spirit dominated the atmosphere of workshops. Positive discussions and interviews held in workshops enhanced action plan. Entering the Plan into implementation phase, all teams and bodies are concerned with implementation of Plan are ready to contribute to achieve their objectives and to made more achievements. If Dubai Plan 2021 reflects future ambitions of the people of Dubai, implementation of Plan evidences their determination to become a world class destination« Aisha Miran, Assistant Secretary General, Strategy Management and Governance Sector said
Bridging the Gaps
The agenda of workshops addressed the list of gaps to bridge them according to precedence. Prioritizing gaps depends on two standards are gap size and its impact on achieving desirable objective in order to list priorities which will contribute to identifying the sequence of strategic programs.
Workshops also included demonstration of strategic programs developed by governmental bodies which will be involved in its implementation during the next seven years, and those bodies also discussed implementation mechanism of both related programs and the next phases to follow-up implementation process. Prioritizing these programs depended on standards of strategic importance, the necessity for implementation of these programs or possibility of postponing them to a later date, impact of programs on achieving strategic goals and quantitative targets of the Plan, ease implementation of programs in terms of whether there is or not financial or structural obstacles to implement programs and prioritized gap is being addressed by the programs as per priority of gaps was determined.
Policies and Initiatives
A series of workshops serve as implementation mechanism of the Plan where strategic programs, initiatives and policies to be adopted by Government of Dubai to achieve its goals are being discussed in details. This phase also include budgeting needed to implement strategic initiatives and mechanism of their financing, implementation and supervision as well as developing communication plan, risk management and change management.
It is expected that ideas were made during workshops will constitute cornerstone of the most important strategic plans and introducing new phase of non-preceded achievements to be made over the next seven years. Programs were distributed to cover the first phase of implementation over three years »2015-2017« followed by the second phase »2018-2020« of reviewing performance and identifying gaps and creative solutions on a regular basis to ensure achieving Plan's targets.
Interactive workshops
Based on interactive workshops covered detailed discussion of gaps during the last October, team of the General Secretariat of Dubai Executive Council resumed working with governmental bodies and agreed upon working on the main gaps of performance of each theme of Plan's themes according to results of performance report and status quo analysis. Workshops discussed details of various themes:
Pivotal Hub
In the first day, teams covered the theme of »A Pivotal Hub in the Global Economy« and both of gaps and programs divided into the main three aims:
- A City that Enjoys Sustainable Economic Growth
- One of the World's Leading Business Centers
- The Most Business Friendly City and a Preferred Investment Destination
These discussions focused on addressing economic aspect of »A Pivotal Hub in the Global Economy« by revising previously identified gaps and sustainability of the existing policies and considering results and data of different sectors which constitute foundations of Dubai economy.
The session began with classifying gaps according to precedence of bridging. Gaps related to economy hub and programs have been agreed with body assigned to implement these programs were discussed. Each representative of governmental body demonstrated details of prioritized programs and implementation schedule.
Economic Sectors
Workshop discussed a number of important economic sectors including trade, financial services, tourism, Islamic economy and other issues of Dubai economy. On the other hand, I was discussed about implementation mechanism of strategic programs and the ability to be executed during the given period. It worth notably that the most of strategic programs cover aspect of creativity and innovation to ensure sustainability of dynamic and competitive economy.
A number of gaps and development areas with priority of addressing and previously identified were discussed based on performance report and status quo analysis in the Emirate. The aim of identifying gaps and their reasons is developing programs and initiatives including polices of bridging these gaps and improving the performance of the Emirate to achieve its desirable targets of 2021.
Teams in economy workshop discussed some initiatives and programs, for example, development of strategy for the industrial sector of Dubai to address challenge is being facing by the economy of the Emirate in order to maintain sustainable economic growth under global crisis and fluctuations. The programs will be implemented by Jebel Ali Free Zone and Dubai industrial City.
Sustainable Intelligence
On the second day, workshop discussed programs related to the theme of »A Smart & Sustainable City« fall under the main four aims of this theme:
-A Smart, Integrated and Connected City by 2021
-Sustainable with its Resources
-Applying International and Environmentally Friendly Standards to control and reduce environmental pollution and rationalize consumption
-A Safe and Resilient Built Environment.
Thus, teams covered those gaps during workshops and the most critical point is increase carbon dioxide emissions which prevent sustainability of the Emirate in terms of creating a clean and sustainable environment. In order to bridging this gap, supreme Council of Energy in collaboration with Roads and Transport Authority demonstrated the proposed program of developing a policy for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and one of ways to activate this policy is encouraging drivers on using environmentally friendly vehicles.
Finishing Touches
Putting right now the finishing touches on strategic programs and implementation plans in accordance with approved timeline is completed. A several strategic programs were developed in creative labs sessions and other workshop and these programs are being classified according to precedence of implementation in preparation to develop action plans.
These steps were taken on a number of phases; the first phase include a number of strategic programs to bridge the gaps were suggested by teamwork of the General Secretariat of Dubai Executive Council and all governmental bodies were participated to suggest another strategic programs with focus on themes of their respective bodies. This phase was ended up with prioritizing strategic programs designated to bridge the gaps then will be discussed in creativity workshop.
Phases
The second phase was launched by holding creative labs sessions in the last November in the presence of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council where the teams reviewed and discussed list of programs proposed by teamwork of the General Secretariat of Dubai Executive Council and other governmental bodies to bridge the gaps. Creative labs are designated mainly to encourage governmental bodies, attract people inside and outside the Government to work in stimulating environment, suggest new and creative programs. Therefore, the outcome of these labs is improved list of strategic programs to bridge gaps.
The third and current phase focuses on the final review of the proposed programs with the concerned bodies.
The fourth phase will be started this month and implementing bodies will be provided with a model of strategic programs and governmental bodies are required to provide a description of strategic programs including identify the goal, mail activities, contributors, needed budget, potential outputs, key performance index "KPI", risks and how to address them. Teamwork of the General Secretariat of Dubai Executive Council will conduct the final review of programs' description and follow its implementation.
Comprehensive Description
The theme of »A Pioneering and Excellent Government« was discussed during a series of workshops in connection the future government and its role in improving government work to make more achievements and keep up with future prospects of the Emirate. In this regard, the discussion covered aims of this theme by which the Government should be:
-Proactive and Creative in Meeting the Needs of Individuals and Society as a Whole
-Sustainable and Innovative in the Management of its Resources
-Transparent and Reliable to build trust in beneficiaries of all nationalities.
The session was initiated by reviewing gaps and their reasons including diversity of governmental service providers resulting in providing beneficiaries with services with varying degrees of quality and in order to bridge this gap, Dubai Smart Government developed connected smart services for categories of beneficiaries. For the gap of link between financial planning and economic planning, Department of Finance is working now on developing smart financial planning which will help in design and apply unified and standardized electronic system for all department, authorities and organizations for financial planning and budgeting. The absolute aim of this program is to enable departments to measure their performance on optimal use of annual budgets.
Governmental Services
The programs demonstrated aspect of creativity of government in improving efficiency of governmental services of meeting the needs of individual and society in the present and future through policies, initiatives and legislations ensure serving the public interest. Some programs were developed directly in accordance with »Dubai Government towards 2021 Initiative« launched by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive in 2nd UAE Government Summit was held in February of last year which outlines road map of adopting a concept of collaborative connected government and designs governmental services as appropriate for different needs of beneficiaries.
Pioneering and Excellent Government Meet the Future Expectations
The theme of »City of Happy, Creative & Empowered People« was discussed with respective governmental bodies in connection with people and in particular Emirati citizens depending on the twenty three gap were identified during the previous workshops.
Like as the other themes, those gaps were divided into four aims:
-Educated, Cultured and Healthy Individuals
-Productive and Innovative in a Variety of Fields
-Happy Individuals Proud of Their Culture
-The Cornerstone for Dubai's Development across all fields
Special legislations
One of gaps of priority is low participation rate of Emirati women in labor market and should be bridged through reviewing legislations concerning the employment of women to increase their participation in labor market under supervision of Dubai Women Establishment in collaboration with Dubai Government Human Resources Department.
The programs of the highest priority in the implementation in connection with weakness of merge and join student with disabilities in education system and lack of facilitations, were identified and will be implemented by teamwork of education hub under leadership of Knowledge and Human Development Authority in conjunction with develop and activate Dubai strategy for persons with disabilities to include strategy for integration persons with disabilities into education and training program to improve skills of teaching staff on dealing with students with disabilities.
Along with considering scientific and cultural achievement levels and assessment of health outputs, creative aspect of Dubai's human capital and their contribution to progress of different sectors was discussed in addition to some programs regarding Emirati identity and culture and its role in development were proposed and documented. On the other hand, the discussion covered participation of Emiratis in strategic sectors in the Emirate to ensure sustainable management of these sectors in the future, and one of these programs is »Tamkeen« aims at linking between social benefit policies and work and it plays a role of bridging a gap of high cost of living of Emiratis.