Dubai: The private education sector in Dubai contributes Dh18 billion to the emirate’s economy, according to a report by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).
The report was placed at the Strategic Affairs Council meeting chaired by Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler and First Deputy Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Second Deputy Chairman of The Executive Council and members attended the meeting, which discussed a number of issues including education, financial settlements and smart services in gthe emirate.
The KHDA report highlighted the education sector’s role in enhancing the quality of life of families and reinforcing Dubai’s value proposition as a preferred global destination to live and work.
It also assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education sector and outlined the opportunities to use distance and blended learning to enhance the quality of education. Dubai’s private education sector serves 300,000 school students and 50,000 higher education students.
Smart Status Notification Service
During the meeting, Dubai Police officials spoke about its new service that allows members of the public to get information about their ‘criminal status’ in financial cases and check whether police or judicial entities have issued a travel ban against them. More than 75,000 people belonging to 150 nationalities have benefited from this service. The service has processed a total of 540,000 inquiries leading to the recovery of Dh2.6 billion and facilitated financial savings of over Dh18 million.
Dubai Police also briefed the Council on its ‘Smart Status Notification Service, which seeks to notify individuals charged in small financial cases via SMS about any travel bans on them to give them an opportunity to settle their cases. More than 21,000 individuals belonging to 137 nationalities have benefited from the service which has facilitated the recovery of Dh2.1 billion and savings of Dh38 million.
Smart Dubai presented a report about the progress of the Dubai Paperless Strategy, which seeks to transfer all government transactions to digital platforms. The implementation of the strategy has so far enabled 33 government entities to cut paper consumption by 67 per cent, saving 195.4 million sheets of paper from a total of 293.2 million consumed annually by these entities. The strategy also allowed entities to save Dh831 million and 8.8 million hours of labour, in addition to saving 23,448 trees.
Smart Dubai is working to transfer 100 per cent of the Dubai Government’s internal transactions and public services to digital platforms before the end of 2021.
