DUBAI, 14 November — Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai and UAE Defense Minister, yesterday outlined Dubai’s strategic vision for the next ten years at the Dubai Strategy Forum which concluded yesterday.
Speaking to an audience of business leaders, government officials and members of the press, he said that building the competencies and skills of UAE nationals would be the core of Dubai’s development strategy in the next decade. The Dubai Strategy Forum has brought a distinguished panel of global business and academic experts to discuss the changes taking place in the global economy.
Sheikh Mohammed said the broad objectives of Dubai’s strategic plan for the next decade would include achieving greater self-reliance, transforming society into a knowledge-based entity and playing a more dynamic role in the global economy.
Dubai will try to achieve these objectives through further developing its technology and telecommunications sectors, boosting growth in its services sector and launching new strategic initiatives to help businesses grow. Speaking about the importance of a vision for the future, Sheikh Mohammed said that Emirates’ recent announcement of a 55 billion dirhams expansion of its fleet was made for strategic reasons. The move, announced at a time when the airline industry is in a state of crisis, was aimed at the future, he said. Dubai has set itself specific goals for the next ten years to increase the share of knowledge-based industries to 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the share of the production and services sectors of the GDP to 70 percent.
Underpinning all these efforts will be a comprehensive plan aimed at developing the emirate’s human resources, said Sheikh Mohammed. Man and not machine is the key to progress, said Sheikh Mohammed. He argued that he had immense faith in the abilities of the citizens of the country. Referring to the establishment of Dubai’s key technology projects, Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City, he said that these initiatives, which were thought of as difficult two years ago, were made possible by the sincere efforts of UAE nationals. Dubai, he said, should make maximum use of its current prosperity to educate and develop its young talent.
Speaking about the UAE’s progress in putting in place an e-government infrastructure, Sheikh Mohammed warned against complacency. Putting the technology in place does not mean the end of the road has been reached. What is more important, he said, was to gain the expertise to obtain the maximum benefits from it. Technology, he pointed out, was not an end in itself but a means to an end. Sheikh Mohammed said the government had launched a project to train end users of e-government services so that they could be provided with a faster and higher quality service.
Government departments should facilitate the greater involvement of junior staff in the activities of the department to increase their capabilities and skills.
