DUBAI: Dubai Customs has crowned its rich program of activities for this year’s inaugural UAE Innovation Week with an exciting and inimitable event, never seen at the level of local Customs administrations.
Under the effective patronage of H.E. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, Dubai Customs today Tuesday 24 November 2015 rolled out its First Government Innovation Lab – Passenger Operations under the theme “We Innovate to Make You Happy”. The mega brainstorming event was declared open by H.E. Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs, at Dubai’s iconic Burj Al-Arab hotel, in presence of eminent government and public figures, including Mohammed Juma Nasser Boussaiba, Director General of Federal Customs Authorit, and Major General Pilot Ahmed Bin Thani, Assistant Commander for Seaports and Airports at Dubai Police, as well as around 100 government officials and professionals from various fields.
The first edition of the Innovation Lab, organized by DC Passenger Operations Department, was dedicated to generating fresh ideas and innovative initiatives with the ultimate aim of “making people happier” by boosting Customs service at Dubai airports to further enhance passenger experience. The laboratory agenda consisted of three main brainstorming themes: “Community Happiness”, “Customer Happiness”, and “Employee Happiness”.
H.E. Sultan bin Sulayem, chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, said: “The UAE Innovation Week initiative is an opportunity for us to interact with a treasure of ideas from the public, experts and top officials to achieve a quantum leap in the level of service delivered to our customers, our staff and our community. We pledge the wise leadership to continue working hard to turn the initiatives presented over this remarkable innovation week into tangible realities.”
In his opening address, H.E. Ahmed Mahboob Musabih welcomed participants at the first government innovation lab. He said that Dubai Customs wanted this extraordinary event to be a true catalyst for enhancing the culture of innovation and creativity in our community and stimulating initiatives instrumental in building the UAE’s leading experience in the region.
“The UAE Innovation Week is the cherry on top of the pioneering initiatives that were launched during the Year of Innovation. Since the cabinet declared 2015 as the Year of Innovation, following the directives of UAE President H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, national initiatives that spark innovation across the society came pouring out,” said H.E. Musabih.
He added that the UAE Innovation Week, launched by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, offered the perfect opportunity for ministries, government departments as well as the private sector to interact with creative minds in our society to realise the goal set by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed to “achieve a qualitative shift in the culture of innovation in all organizations and sectors in the UAE.”
“Dubai Customs is today proud to launch the First Government Innovation Lab, which culminates long weeks of preparation to mark an active participation at the UAE Innovation Week through a rich array of events. It gives us great pleasure to have on-board leading professionals from government and private sectors at the first edition of the Innovation Lab, which is dedicated to generating innovative ideas that will improve customs services being delivered to passengers at Dubai airports. The theme of this Innovation Lab, “We innovate … to make you happy” is very much in line with the leadership’s perspective of the government work’s core objective which is to serve people’s happiness.”
The United Arab Emirates, he said, has become a role model for others regionally and internationally in maintaining sustainable economic development, thanks to the breakthroughs seen in all sectors in the past few decades. “We have secured diversification of our national income structure, with a special emphasis on boosting non-oil sectors. Travel & tourism and foreign trade are major drivers of the economic performance in the UAE in general and Dubai in particular.”
H.E. Musabih pointed out that Dubai’s non-oil foreign trade had scored AED 1.331 trillion in 2014, and AED 652 billion in the first half of 2015. “The prosperity of travel & tourism sector represents one of the major aspects of Dubai’s success. Tourists flocking to Dubai in 2015 are expected to reach 14.4 million, while passenger traffic going through Dubai International Airport is predicted to amount to 80 million. Air freight capacity passing through DXB increased to 1.853 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2015,” he explained.
“These milestones and breakthroughs serve as a springboard for the upcoming development stage, which will equip us to turn challenges into achievements, as we learned from H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum; hence placing the UAE among the top 10 most innovative countries, currently led by Switzerland.”
