UAE and Uzbekistan activate strategic partnership agreement

Business Bureau, Gulf Today

Joint task forces comprising representatives of the governments of the UAE and Uzbekistan held a four-day series of meetings and workshops to discuss 17 areas of cooperation in modernizing government work. The agenda fell within the framework of an official visit of a high-level Uzbek government delegation to the UAE, aimed at activating a strategic partnership between the two countries through the exchange of knowledge and experience in government work.

The partnership focuses on leveraging development models in government work, the application of best practices in government services and smart services, institutional performance, innovation and excellence, as well as leadership and capacity building.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two countries have formed 17 expert task forces that seek to launch 57 joint initiatives in 2019 to support the implementation of a business model that will help identify solutions to future challenges facing the Uzbekistan government.

Within the framework of the National Strategic Plan area, Maryam Al Hammadi, Assistant Director General for Government Performance at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) at the UAE Ministry of Cabinet Affairs and the Future (MOCAF), highlighted the advantages of developing a comprehensive national plan for Uzbekistan that will determine the country’s path to 2030. She emphasized the importance of defining priorities and national KPIs, setting specific national benchmarks, and measuring the progress of the implementation to achieve the goals  Maryam Al Hammadi addressed several steps to enhance government efficiency. These included launching a government quality award in line with Uzbekistan’s government requirements and promoting a culture of quality among government entities. She also recommended the evaluation criteria that could be used for the first edition of the award.

Government Performance Management System

 Maryam Al Hammadi explained the mechanism of measuring the performance of government entities at the national level, outlined the benefits the Government of Uzbekistan will gain from developing an electronic performance management system, and analyzed ways to monitor the implementation of government plans and programs. In this context, she stressed the need for an exchange of knowledge and experience between the two countries.

Huda Al Hashimi, Assistant to the Director General for Strategy and Innovation at PMO, highlighted the importance of setting up government accelerators in Uzbekistan to expedite the government’s ability to find solutions to urgent challenges. The joint task force seeks to launch the first group of accelerators within 100 days of signing the partnership agreement. Achieving this priority will involve preparing accelerator sites, designing and building the facilities, training staff and qualifying leaders of the accelerator teams, as well as identifying the most pressing challenges for the accelerators to address.

Dr Yasir Al Naqbi, Assistant Director General for Leadership and Government Capabilities at PMO, discussed the implementation of specialized leadership training programs to qualify young leaders and develop the skills of employees of Uzbek government entities. He also highlighted the need to launch specialized workshops within the programs and organize knowledge-sharing visits to the UAE towards enhancing government capacity building.

Atraf Shehab, Managing Director of the Future Department at PMO, explained the training methods for future forecasting specialists with a focus on option analysis and scenario planning that will enable them to understand the concept and importance of future foresight, build future skills and tools, and better anticipate the future in daily government work.

The UAE has held a leading position in the Arab world for ease of doing business over the past six years. Drawing on the country’s successful experience, His Excellency Abdulla Nasser Lootah, Director General of the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority (FCSA), clarified the application of indicators of ease of doing business in measuring the efficiency of government procedures that control business activities. The task force examined the most important challenges facing businesses in Uzbekistan, the need to develop a comprehensive ease of doing business plan and a progress report to measure the achievements to date, as well as relevant targets and indicators, and best ways of monitoring the results.

One Million Khwarizmi (Coders)

In the Programming area, His Excellency Abdul Aziz Al Jazairi, Deputy CEO of Dubai Future Foundation, explored the opportunity to export the One Million Arab Coders competition of Dubai Future Foundation to Uzbekistan. The task force seeks to develop a high-level plan to adapt the concept to the Uzbek context and launch the initiative locally under the name One Million Khwarizmi (Coders).