Dubai: High-profile UAE and international delegates are meeting in Dubai on Monday at the Government Summit to explore the future of state-run services.
The three-day event is held under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Some 60 speakers, including royalty, senior government officials and corporate bosses, are expected to address around 3,500 attendees at the Madinat Jumeirah resort.
The decision-makers will discuss adopting technology and managerial success stories — from the public and private sector — in government services.
The sessions will address how officials can learn from business models, even football clubs, about customer satisfaction and service delivery.
Delegates will also tackle the challenges facing education and health care in the UAE and how private industry partnerships can slash costs. Round-the-clock government services and apps for smart devices are expected to be highlighted as well.
App Awards
The event will conclude with the Best M-Government Service Award. More than 30 applications from Arab and other countries had qualified for the final stage. The winners will be announced at a private ceremony.
Shaikh Mohammad had announced the award in conjunction with the May 2013 launch of the Smart Government Initiative.
The Summit also has its own mobile Gov Summit App for Android and IOs platforms. The free app offers real-time information related to the Summit and an Augmented Reality feature, making the App “a first of its kind in the region”.
Prominent patronage
The UAE leadership is again lending patronage to the Summit. During its first edition in 2013, Shaikh Mohammad addressed a wide-ranging session on the UAE government and society, taking questions from the audience and media.
His best-seller book, Flashes of Thought, was inspired by the session. The dialogue interaction also led to a surprise school visit by Shaikh Mohammad to Emirati student Mira Ali Murad, who had posed a question in a video broadcast, wishing he would visit her school.
Shaikh Mohammad had promised to fulfil the little girl’s dream.
In the current Summit, Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, will present Dubai’s roadmap for enabling the UAE to become one the world’s leading nations by 2021. His address on Monday is titled ‘Dubai Government: Towards 2021’.
It will be preceded by the ‘Exceptional Leadership’ session by Lt Gen Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior.
Tuesday’s main session — on partnership and innovation in delivering government services — will be addressed by Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.
And presenting the development strategy of Ajman on Wednesday will be Shaikh Ammar Bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Crown Prince of Ajman.
The Summit delegates include British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group; Klaus Schwab, president and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF); and William Danvers, deputy secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Also participating are mayors of major cities, for a session on ‘World Class Services: First-Hand Perspectives from Global Cities’.
The Summit is continuing its partnerships with a number of international organisations such as the UN, OECD and WEF.
On Sunday, a pre-summit OECD meeting, jointly organised with the UAE government, was held as part of the annual meeting of the Working Group on Open and Innovative Government. It primarily looked at easy data access and how that can affect smart government.
Another pre-summit meeting, also co-organised with the UAE government, was regarding the Committee for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). Participants discussed a number of pilot initiatives to be launched at the Summit, with a possible launch of the Government Electronic and Mobile Services (GEMS) Maturity Index.
