Over a decade and a half, the Arab Journalism Award, which concluded its 15th edition earlier this month, highlighted creative topics in the various categories, including one related to economic affairs coverage. The honour has encouraged writers to cover issues related to development activities such as provide libraries with new books as well as to bring out their talents through the competition.

Shortlisted topics involve ideas that could be developed through research by experts and then employ some of them to serve various spheres of economy, the arts, politics, science, sports and culture. In the economic field for example, so many scientific and professional topics have been taken on board over the past 15 years.

This year’s award was conferred to a very pertinent regional topic — the freeing of the energy price — and which raised plenty of eyebrows. It is known that the Gulf’s low energy prices added a heavy burden on government budgets and to the overconsumption of energy.

The winner of the award discussed these aspects scientifically and came to right conclusion that showed the necessity for the freeing up of energy prices for a positive impact on the financial and environmental conditions inside the Gulf countries.

This unique topic provided an accurate picture of the future approach adopted by the UAE and that will be taken up later by other Gulf states. This approach will undoubtedly lead to positive effects that would curb high consumption rates and speed up general budgetary reforms.

However, attention should not be paid only to winning works, as there are others that deserve much attention and follow-up. As a member of the sorting committee and the supreme committee for selecting wining topics, I got confused many times in the selection as many were almost equal in terms of quality and importance.

But, ultimately, the defining factors are opinions of other members and transparent discussions.

Among the topics was an important one regarding the future of the economic diversity in Egypt after the recent events. The writer suggested scientific visions to bring about a qualitative shift in the Egyptian economy.

Researchers and development stakeholders can follow up the topic, which involves bold ideas that depict a comprehensive vision to pull the economy out of its difficulties, which caused adverse impact for a number of key sectors including tourism, transportation and services

Interestingly, last year’s topics too had been in the same direction and involved a fantastic essay for one of Omani newspapers. It revolved around the UAE-Omani border trade and featured good ideas that can help develop it as both countries have contiguous residential and commercial areas.

Although the essay lost out in the competition on a slight difference in the fair evaluation, it did provide insight into a matter that would have positive impacts on both countries What applies to the economic category applies to others as well with competitors coming up with innovative works to scoop the award.

It goes without saying that the award motivates so many to provide works that could make up a solid ground for the implementation of development projects and the betterment of society socially and economically. It will be a landmark achievement in the annals of both the Arab journalism awards and its organisers.

Dr Mohammad Al Asoomi is a UAE economic expert and specialist in economic and social development in the UAE and the GCC countries.