UAE Government Launches 3rd Batch Of Accelerators

Dubai — The UAE Government launched on Monday the third batch of government accelerators.

Seven federal government bodies will lead joint teams to address 11 challenges over the course of 100 days. The accelerators’ objective will be to speed up the execution of initiatives brought up during the UAE Government annual meetings, which was held in Abu Dhabi in September 2017, to boost the performance of vital sectors.

Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, said that the UAE is adopting an innovative approach to encourage integration and bolster the effective partnerships between federal and local government bodies. Al Gergawi said that this is in line with achieving the goals of UAE Centennial 2071.

“The UAE is crossing a new phase in building the future, a phase that focuses on outcomes and joint work, as per the highest standards for coordination and cooperation to come up with innovative solutions for challenges and to transform initiatives into plans and programmes with tangible results,” said Al Gergawi.

The Ministry of Economy’s government accelerators team will introduce and implement a plan to support modern innovative start-up firms. A national programme will be launched in 2018, and during its first phase it will seek to enhance the operations of capital investment funds, supporting incubator networks in the UAE for the purpose of boosting the UAE’s position in the global innovation index.

The Ministry of Infrastructure Development’s team will be tasked with building a unified database to benefit from location-based data for projects that utilise lands and infrastructure on a local and federal level. The database will be presented using an interactive to support the decision-making process. The ministry will also be tasked with executing a comprehensive national plan for coordination to shape a system that boosts integration between federal infrastructure government bodies and their local counterparts.

The Ministry of Justice is leading a team to set up a minor claims court system to speed up the settlement of lawsuits. The goal is to lessen the time required for finalising civil and penal claims by setting up a specialised system to settle in one day minor misdemeanours and civil claims that do not exceed Dh100,000.

A smart UAE addressing system is the challenge set for the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment team. The initiative aims to unify the UAE’s addressing system by setting up a unified system and preparing a suitable infrastructure for linking available data in every emirate. This will help lower the carbon footprint and gas emissions in the UAE, speeding up emergency response times, boosting the level of service delivery and reducing the time spent for travelling for residents and visitors.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisations will be responsible for joint national initiatives that concern increasing the number of Emiratis working in the sectors of telecommunications, technology, aviation, transportation, real estate and service centres. The ministry’s team will forge partnerships with companies and establishments to boost the participation of national cadres in strategic sectors by offering them suitable job opportunities and qualifying them to join said sectors in a sustainable and effective manner.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority will work on improving the time spent on the exchange of immediate and accurate information between local and national registers, which are managed by the authority to regulate the telecommunications sector. The initiative will aim to record a 55 per cent increase in the number of national economy register inquiries in 100 days. The authority is also tasked with a second challenge: To ensure that residents provide personal information and documents only once when registering for businesses through the electronic platform through an initiative dubbed ‘Start up your business in 15 minutes’. The initiative will reduce the time spent on the process of registration of applications by ending paper transactions.

The General Secretariat of the Cabinet will take on the challenge of periodically reviewing priority legislations and introducing amendments, if necessary. The team will work on preparing draft regulations for the civil procedures law within 100 days to facilitate and speed up litigation proceedings.