Abu Dhabi's finance department unveils five-year strategic plan

Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi's Department of Finance (DoF) has unveiled its Strategic Plan for 2008-12 incorporating financial best practices and advanced fiscal tools and socio-economic development objectives outlined by the Abu Dhabi Policy Agenda.

The DoF Strategic Plan also constitutes a new set of financial priorities, guidelines and a framework aimed at ushering in a new era of prosperity for residents of Abu Dhabi.

The new strategy was unveiled by Hamad Al Hurr Al Suwaidi, DoF's Undersecretary, and Member of the Executive Council and Mohammad Sultan Al Hameli, DoF's Executive Director.

The Plan is an all-encompassing financial approach to leverage all resources and capabilities of both the private and public sector.

"The Plan supports Abu Dhabi Government's Policy Agenda to achieving economic growth by providing financial best practices. It signals the proactive participation of DoF in the overall developmental goals of Abu Dhabi, which will be marked by the three key pillars of competitiveness, excellence and pioneering initiatives," Al Suwaidi said.

The Plan encompasses 12 priorities that call for implementing the latest technologies for the allocation of financial resources, further boosting the skills of DoF's employees, adopting world-class financial and accounting systems, providing fiscal policy advice to government entities to ensure their proactive participation in financial stability, and aligning strategy with financial planning and budgeting.

Al Hameli said the launch of this plan is a reflection of the department's aspirations to support the government's strategic goals of achieving a decentralised financial model, higher degree of financial stability and flexibility.

"The Plan reiterates the importance of modern methodologies to prepare government budgets by aligning financial resource use with strategic plans of all entities, activating the financial decentralisation model for all government-funded entities," he said.