DUBAI: Director of Dubai Customs, Ahmed Mahboob Musabih launched a new initiative in which all Dubai Customs departments will be seen giving 10 hours a month to brainstorming about innovation and coming up with out of the box ideas and services. The idea is inspired by 10X Initiative, which was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and aims to position Dubai as a global capital of innovation in the next 10 years. His Highness’s vision is to push the UAE towards the top of all global competitiveness indexes. The UAE has already progressed on the 2016 Global Innovation Index. It ranked first among Arab countries and 41st worldwide in terms of overall performance on the index, up from second in the Arab World and 47th globally in 2015. Ahmed Mahboob Musabihpointed out that the new innovations that Dubai Customs came up with have improved general customs performance locally, regionally and internationally and was part of the success that the UAE accomplished when it catapulted from 27th rank in 2014 to 13th in 2016 in the logistical service performance, according to the World Bank.
Musabih reaffirmed that Dubai Customs applies the latest standards within a vision to make innovation a daily practice. This helped Dubai Customs win a number of international accolades such as the “Approved innovative organization” certificate from the Global Innovation Institute (GII) which makes it the first government department in the Middle East and North Africa to receive such accreditation. On his part, Hussam Juma Mohammed, Business Process Director at Dubai Customs, said it’s a priority for Dubai Customs to apply the criteria of the leadership in government services index which was launched by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum – Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council. ” Each department at Dubai Customs will assign 10 hours a month for innovation following the directions of Mr Ahmed Mahboob Musabih. We will encourage and nurture innovation as a daily practice to generate new innovative services and products that serves customs performance in the country and the region” Juma added. Dubai Customs received accreditations from the GII on 8 innovations which makes it a leading innovative government department worldwide. to keep up the good work Dubai Customs encourages and nurtures innovation by organizing workshops. The latest one was training 60 managers and employees in partnership with the GII.
