Business & Money | Thursday 9 May, 2019 12:33 am |

Joint task forces comprising representatives of the governments of the UAE and Uzbekistan held a four-day series of meetings and workshops to discuss 17 areas of cooperation in modernizing government work. The agenda fell within the framework of an official visit of a high-level Uzbek government delegation to the UAE, aimed at activating a strategic partnership between the two countries through the exchange of knowledge and experience in government work.

The partnership focuses on leveraging development models in government work, the application of best practices in government services and smart services, institutional performance, innovation and excellence, as well as leadership and capacity building. 

Under the terms of the agreement, the two countries have formed 17 expert task forces that seek to launch 57 joint initiatives in 2019 to support the implementation of a business model that will help identify solutions to future challenges facing the Uzbekistan government.

During this week’s meetings, the task forces discussed a range of areas, including: 

• Government Accelerators 
• Government Quality 
• Government Services 
• National Strategic Plan 
• Government Innovation 
• Future of Education and Economics
• Programming 
• Global Competitiveness 
• Airports, Customs, and Free Zones Management 
• Future Foresight 
• Smart Safe Cities 
• Ease of Doing Business 
• Leadership Programs and Capacity-building 
• Smart Government Apps

National Strategic Plan – Uzbekistan 2030

Within the framework of the National Strategic Plan area, Her Excellency Maryam Al Hammadi, Assistant Director General for Government Performance at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) at the UAE Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future (MOCAF), highlighted the advantages of developing a comprehensive national plan for Uzbekistan that will determine the country’s path to 2030. She emphasized the importance of defining priorities and national KPIs, setting specific national benchmarks, and measuring the progress of the implementation to achieve the goals of the individual projects and programs under the plan.

Government Quality Award

Her Excellency Maryam Al Hammadi addressed several steps to enhance government efficiency. These included launching a government quality award in line with Uzbekistan’s government requirements and promoting a culture of quality among government entities. She also recommended the evaluation criteria that could be used for the first edition of the award.

Government Performance Management System

Her Excellency Maryam Al Hammadi explained the mechanism of measuring the performance of government entities at the national level, outlined the benefits the Government of Uzbekistan will gain from developing an electronic performance management system, and analyzed ways to monitor the implementation of government plans and programs. In this context, she stressed the need for an exchange of knowledge and experience between the two countries.

Government Accelerators

Her Excellency Huda Al Hashimi, Assistant to the Director General for Strategy and Innovation at PMO, highlighted the importance of setting up government accelerators in Uzbekistan to expedite the government’s ability to find solutions to urgent challenges. The joint task force seeks to launch the first group of accelerators within 100 days of signing the partnership agreement. Achieving this priority will involve preparing accelerator sites, designing and building the facilities, training staff and qualifying leaders of the accelerator teams, as well as identifying the most pressing challenges for the accelerators to address.

Leadership Programs

His Excellency Dr Yasir Al Naqbi, Assistant Director General for Leadership and Government Capabilities at PMO, discussed the implementation of specialized leadership training programs to qualify young leaders and develop the skills of employees of Uzbek government entities. He also highlighted the need to launch specialized workshops within the programs and organize knowledge-sharing visits to the UAE towards enhancing government capacity building.

Future Foresight

His Excellency Atraf Shehab, Managing Director of the Future Department at PMO, explained the training methods for future forecasting specialists with a focus on option analysis and scenario planning that will enable them to understand the concept and importance of future foresight, build future skills and tools, and better anticipate the future in daily government work.

Ease of Doing Business 

The UAE has held a leading position in the Arab world for ease of doing business over the past six years. Drawing on the country’s successful experience, His Excellency Abdulla Nasser Lootah, Director General of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA), clarified the application of indicators of ease of doing business in measuring the efficiency of government procedures that control business activities. The task force examined the most important challenges facing businesses in Uzbekistan, the need to develop a comprehensive ease of doing business plan and a progress report to measure the achievements to date, as well as relevant targets and indicators, and best ways of monitoring the results.

One Million Khwarizmi (Coders) 

In the Programming area, His Excellency Abdul Aziz Al Jazairi, Deputy CEO of Dubai Future Foundation, explored the opportunity to export the One Million Arab Coders competition of Dubai Future Foundation to Uzbekistan. The task force seeks to develop a high-level plan to adapt the concept to the Uzbek context and launch the initiative locally under the name One Million Khwarizmi (Coders).

Customer Journey

The Government Services Task Force analyzed the concepts of customer satisfaction, customer journey, and customer experience, and reviewed the methods and techniques of training customer service personnel. His Excellency Mohammed Bin Taliah, Assistant Director General for Government Services at PMO, highlighted best practices from leading private sector entities that can be utilized in developing government service offerings. He also discussed ways of engaging customers in the design of government services, handling various types of customers, and effective response mechanisms to observations and suggestions.

Future of Education and Economics

Faisal Al Hammadi, at the UAE Ministry of Education, provided an overview of UAE initiatives and programs aimed at improving the quality of public education. The agenda of the joint task force also included field trips to public schools, higher education institutions, and a teacher training center to provide a first-hand experience of the UAE educational system and its multiple higher education models.

Smart Safe Cities

Brigadier Jamal Al Jallaf, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department at Dubai Police, presented the success story of the Dubai Smart Police Station, the first fully integrated self-service police station without human intervention in the Middle East that allows community members to benefit from Dubai Police services available at traditional police stations. The center provides a range of smart services, including filing a criminal report, dropping off lost and found items, and applying for various certificates and permits. It also supports security surveillance systems and the fight against cybercrimes through artificial intelligence.

Airports, Customs, and Free Zones Management

The Airports, Customs, and Free Zones Management Task Force explored areas of cooperation in air cargo, ports management, and free zone establishment. Ahmad Sultan Al Haddad, Chief Operating Officer of Jebel Ali Free Zone, Nadya Abdulla Kamali, Chief Executive Officer of Customs World, and Jaffar Dawood, Senior Vice President of Airline Services at Dnata, highlighted the importance of building multi-modal logistics hubs in line with Uzbekistan’s requirements. They also discussed ways of creating an environment conducive to international trade, including launching vital projects that enhance the economy, deploying the latest technologies, and adopting best international practices in developing customs capabilities.

Building a Framework for Competitiveness 

His Excellency Abdulla Nasser Lootah of FCSA discussed the development of a competitiveness framework for the Uzbekistan government with a focus on data collection and adopting international standards and indicators within vital sectors in line with the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 that measures the performance of 140 countries across 12 pillars based on 98 indicators.

Smart Government Apps

His Excellency Mohammed Bin Taliah of PMO emphasized the benefits of launching smart applications in various fields of government work. He introduced Uzbekistan’s eGovernment officials to the UAE's smart government practices, customer experience lab and mobile government service platforms. He also recommended launching an award for the best mobile government service app designed by university students during ICT Week Uzbekistan to maximize awareness.

Government Innovation

Her Excellency Huda Al Hashimi of PMO discussed the importance of government innovation and motivating employees to come up with new ideas to improve government work, as well as the need to launch a training program to promote innovation among government entities in Uzbekistan. She also called for the creation of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the field of innovation, in addition to training executive officers on innovation to support decision-making processes and step up the quality of government services.