Abu Dhabi: The UAE’s leaders placed the highest importance on providing a means of prosperity and happiness for citizens, an Emirati strategist said yesterday.
“UAE’s leadership has continued to make prosperity and happiness a key focus of policymaking. Out of this commitment, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched a strategy to make the country one of the world’s most innovative within seven years,” Maj Gen Dr Abdul Qudoos Al Obaidli, Chairman of the Emirates Strategic Planning Association, said.
Dr Al Obaidli gave the keynote speech at the third conference of the association held under the theme ‘Happiness and Innovation Strategies Towards 2021”.
The UN World Happiness Report has pegged the UAE as the happiest nation in the Arab world for the third consecutive year, 20th globally, ahead of Oman (22), Qatar (28), Saudi Arabia (35), Kuwait (39) and Bahrain (49).
The UAE has ranked 20th on the 2015 World Happiness Report published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the United Nations, released on April 23.
The nation is ranked among 158 countries on the index that took into account GDP per capita, life expectancy, social support and freedom to make life choices as indicators of happiness.
The UAE gets special mention in the report, citing the Dubai Plan 2021, launched by Shaikh Mohammad last December. Shaikh Mohammad is lauded as among the few global leaders who are talking about the importance of well-being as a guide for their nations.
Shaikh Mohammad has said: “The first objective for the Dubai Plan 2021 is achieving people’s happiness.”
The conference is organised under the patronage of Lt Gen Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior and President Emeritus of the Emirates Strategic Planning Association.
An elite group of Emirati strategists took part in the conference and submitted papers that touched on four main topics. ‘Happiness’, according to the vision of the UAE President, presented by Ahmad Juma Al Zaabi, Deputy Minister of Presidential Affairs. ‘Innovation’ will be presented by Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Deputy Chairman of Police and General Security in Dubai, and Chairman of the Emirates Association for the Talented.
‘Happiness for people with disabilities’ was tackled by Mohammad Mohammad Fadel Al Hameli, Secretary-General of the Zayed Higher Organisation for Humanitarian Care and Special Needs, and the fourth topic, ‘The invention of the first Emirati space probe’ was tackled by Omran Anwar Sharaf, Director of Space Image Processing and Analysis Department at the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology.
The strategic goals of the Emirates Strategic Planning Association focus on raising awareness and encouraging strategic thinking in UAE society, and strengthening community-based partnerships among all segments and institutions of the UAE community and governmental, private, civil, and global institutions.
