Emiratis 'must be masters of own destiny'

Abu Dhabi: A new National Competitiveness Council, a National Statistics Office and federal regulations for free and special economic zones are all part of a comprehensive economic framework, designed to maintain the country's economic growth and development.

"Our nation has maintained robust economic growth over the past few years, with GDP rising from Dh261 billion in 2002 to Dh599 in 2006. And we can achieve much more, with all the untapped opportunities around us," said His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, while unveiling the first UAE Strategy yesterday.

Pointing to the new challenges faced by the economy, Shaikh Mohammad said the latest World Bank Doing Business Report registered a nine-rank drop for the UAE from the 68th to the 77th rank.

"Despite several remarks on the inaccuracy of the indicator, it remains an international reference point for investors," he said. "We have to tackle it by identifying the reasons for not making progress. The indicator might have had a five to ten rank error margin, but this is not as important as setting a target rank for ourselves and striving to achieve it using all required means," he said.

The new plans to boost the economy include public policies designed to stimulate growth, strengthen competitiveness of the national economy and upgrade regulations and legislation. Also on the agenda is creating the capabilities to implement the policies.

These policies support the federal government's regulatory role in creating and modifying fiscal, monetary and trade policies and creating the necessary institutional framework.

"The country has been fine tuning its fiscal and monetary policies to suit the new economic realities and challenges ahead. The central bank will work in tandem with the government's growth vision while making adjustments in monetary policy, especially interest rate adjustments and exchange rates. Overall, the priority of every policy initiative from the central bank will be focused on the nation's economic growth targets," said Sultan Nasser Al Suwaidi, the UAE Central Bank Governor.

Performance

Shaikh Mohammad said the government sector has helped the UAE maintain an upward economic trajectory, adding its performance determines the pace of growth for the rest of the nation.

He added that their performance is directly linked to the realisation of the goals of the National Programme and the UAE Strategy.

As part of the policy guidelines for economic growth, the federal strategy has proposed a few key initiatives such as the creation of a National Competitiveness Council to advise the federal government on competitiveness issues.

Also on the drawing board is a National Statistics Office; a vocational training unit created in collaboration of private sector; federal policies for small and medium sized enterprises, formed in cooperation with local governments; and the preparation of federal framework for minimum regulatory requirements for both free zones and special economic zones, such as labour rights and environment conservation.

"A direct role for government and private sector in imparting comprehensive training programmes for UAE nationals to increase their competitiveness in the labour market and promote entrepreneurship among young UAE nationals. The UAE central bank and the financial system in the country will work towards providing suitable financing mechanism for small and medium enterprises started by nationals as envisaged in the federal economic strategy," Suwaidi said.

Explaining the rationale for the new and unified approach to the economic development of the nation, Shaikh Mohammad said that the government is guided by the National Programme, which was launched by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in December 2005.

"The objective of the strategy concur with the objective of National Programme of ensuring sustainable development and high standard of living for all UAE nationals. Providing our people with a higher standard of living has always been the goal of the country's leadership. The government was never tardy in exerting its efforts and using all its available resources to ensure social and human development of the UAE, and we are deeply grateful to Allah for all the success that we have achieved so far," he said.

The UAE Prime Minister emphasised that coordination between federal and local governments is a priority, and said that the federal government is focusing on all legislations pertaining to economic, trade, labour, education and health regulations.

He added that the federal government should be attuned to all changes and developments, since local governments are in charge of implementing most activities that support the development of the country.

Empowering nationals

Turning the focus on the role of private sector in achieving the nation's economic aspirations, Shaikh Mohammad said the government would like to encourage the private sector to increase its role, expand its field of operations and create new opportunities and jobs, while remaining socially responsible.

"We want the private sector to launch strategic initiatives that serve the interests of the country and society."

The emphasis on the role of small and medium enterprises in the Federal Strategy will help the creation of innovative enterprises and self-employment programmes, said Ahmad Humaid Al Tayer, Chairman of Emirates Bank and Commercial Bank of Dubai.

"The federal strategy has officially recognised the need for cooperation between the government and private sector in providing gainful employment to the UAE nationals. The sharing of this key responsibility by both private and public sector will go a long way in solving the issue of unemployment among the nationals," he said. "Al Tumooh was an initiative by the Emirates Bank to create self employment among the UAE nationals. The project has been very successful. With the federal strategy recognising the role of job creation and entrepreneurship, we expect more government support and participation to such programmes across the country."

Going beyond the private sector's role in job creation, the new federal strategy calls for corporate responsibility in all-around development of the country.

"Developed countries are doing what our ancestors used to do more than a thousand years ago, where charity endowments acted as the main engine of the renaissance of Arab and Muslim civilisation in all the different fields of science and humanity," Shaikh Mohammad said.

Calling on the UAE nationals to be the masters of their destiny, Shaikh Mohammad said the biggest responsibility on the shoulders of the government today is to empower nationals to take the lead in developing the economy.

"We need to adopt a comprehensive nationalisation policy that will focus on training, and equipping UAE nationals to better cooperate in the labour market, developing entrepre-neurship and innovation and encouraging UAE nationals to launch and manage their own projects," he said.

Fact file: Policy initiatives

- Formation of a National Competitiveness Council to advice the federal government on competitiveness issues

- Establishment of a National Statistics Office

- Creation of a vocational training unit with the collaboration of private sector

- Formulation of federal policies for small and medium sized enterprises in co-operation with local governments

- Preparation of federal framework for minimum regulatory requirements for both free zones and special economic zones such as labour rights and environment conservation