Saud urges governments to be role models

Ras Al Khaimah: Shaikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Crown Prince and Deputy Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, on Monday said that governments should become role models for the private sector by taking efficiency and competitiveness to new heights.

Delivering the keynote address at the Ras Al Khaimah 2008 conference organised jointly by Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (Rakia) and Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) at Hotel Al Hamra Fort here, Shaikh Saud said that during the last four years, Ras Al Khaimah was trying to implement a new vision of governance where the government acts and performs as a business unit.

He said that governments should generate revenue through legitimate, sensible investments, like any other business, to support social spending. "In terms of increasing revenues, governments can always be lured by taxation, which ultimately makes the rest of the population poorer but does not necessarily ensure that the government is richer as it can all easily go to waste," he said.

"The government should invest and be rewarded by profits and these can then be spent on the people and the country. In this way, the image of the government is changed from being on the lives of the people to an asset for the people, "he said.

Outlining his vision of governance, Shaikh Saud said," I subscribe to the view that government must act and perform like a business unit as it is in many ways the most important company in the country and one that we cannot afford to fail. It is important therefore to create a financial structure in the government whereby the government becomes a model for the private sector," he said.

Shaikh Saud said the RAK government has during the last four years successfully implemented this new model of governance which has transformed the emirate, which five years ago was in debt, into a smooth-running enterprise. "We have run a government that now has no external debt and has been running consistent budget surpluses over the past five years. In doing so we have been able to invest in other sectors of the economy such as education, health and physical infrastructure. He also noted that RAK's GDP has been growing on average at 12 per cent in the past four years. Last year alone saw GDP growth at 18 per cent.