DUBAI, June 9th, 2013 -- Abdullah Al Shaibani, Secretary-General of the Dubai Executive Council and Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Executive Chairman of the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation and Director-General of Dubai Customs, have inaugurated the 2nd edition of the Dubai Government Unified Suggestion System Forum, entitled: "Suggestion-Based Services Improvement".

The forum was hosted by Dubai Customs and organised by the Dubai Model Centre for Government Services, a subordinate of the General Secretariat of the Executive Council of Dubai.

In the keynote speech, the Secretary-General of the Dubai Executive Council emphasised the importance of the Unified Suggestion System to both customers and employees of Dubai Government. The system was launched by H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, in May 2011.

Al Shaibani said, "Following the directives of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, and in line with his constant endeavour to fulfill the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, of a future that doesn?t set boundaries on ambitions, a team from the General Secretariat of the Executive Council of Dubai developed the suggestions system to contribute to creating the positive transformation we all aspire to in order to maintain Dubai?s prestigious position, and continuously advance government services by catering to customers, achieving seamless government interconnectivity and innovation".

He added that the Dubai Government Unified Suggestion System for Employees and Customers has formed a platform for attracting and boosting creativity and innovation. He said that there are 26 government departments, agencies and organisations that have joined the system, noting that the number of suggestions that have been received by participating bodies amounted to 29,100 since the system began.

"Being an integrated administrative system developed in coordination with a number of government authorities and in cooperation with Dubai eGovernment team for the technical aspect, the suggestions system provides a unified framework and a documented standard methodology for handling suggestions effectively and utilising them to improve corporate performance and increase satisfaction of government sector customers, achieving consistency and seamless integration between government entities in the area of inciting a spirit of initiative and investing in innovating ideas to maintain the emirate?s image," Al Shaibani added.

In his keynote speech at the event, Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Executive Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation and Director General of Dubai Customs, said: "The crucial factor that determines the ability to utilise suggestions is the readiness of government departments and agencies for development within an innovative perspective, away from traditional thinking and routines".

He added, "Employees occupying administrative positions are the ones who interact the most with actual needs for performance improvement. The same can be said about customers who, through their businesses, discover these needs. Therefore, suggestions submitted by employees and customers deliver best results if departments and agencies are able to take action on these suggestions and turn them into practical procedures".

Ahmed said, "Our experience at Dubai Customs has proved that suggestions from both employees and customers can actively contribute to services improvement and procedures enhancement if handled effectively. A massive increase in the number of suggestions submitted by employees and customers was recorded, from 203 suggestions submitted in 2004 to 2566 suggestions in 2012, marking a significant growth of nearly 35 per cent compared to 2011. The total revenues from applying these suggestions amounted to AED 110 million.

"We created key enterprises based on suggestions we received from employees and customers, namely the formation of the Dubai Customs Consultative Council, which has become a major communication link with heads of business groups and trade sectors in Dubai, leading to facilitation of trade movement and sustaining economic development in Dubai." The Director-General of Dubai Customs said: "Opportunity for an attractive, inspiring environment for suggestions had a good result in enhancing Dubai Custom's reputation internationality. Dubai Customs was the first government department at world level to earn the "Platinum" category from IDeA - UK (Improvement and Development Agency) for three consecutive years, the latest in 2012, and the accreditation was deserved in recognition of the capability of its adopted suggestions system which also qualified to win the Suggestions System Best Practices competition award in its latest cycle last week, with the participation of 151 global private and government departments??.

Commenting on the events of the Forum, Eman Al Suwaidi, Director of Dubai Model Centre, said that the Forum seeks to enhance participation and knowledge experiments amongst different government agencies.

Speakers and participants at the Forum were from different government agencies, including Wafa Abu Sinaina from Dubai Model Centre, Dr. Eng. Rashid Al Leem, Director-General of Sharjah Seaport and Customs, Director-General of Hamriyah Free Zone, Elham Younis from Dubai Police HQ, Hussain Al Fardan from Dubai Customs, Mariam Al Miri from Dubai Courts, and Mariam bin Fahad from Dubai Municipality.

The first discussion session was chaired by Dr. Major General Abdul Ghadus Al Obeidi from Dubai Police HQ while Al Hadi Mohammed from the General Secretariat of Dubai Executive Council chaired the second session. At the end of the Forum, Dubai Model Centre and Dubai eGovenment representatives exposed developmental points and plans for the Unified Suggestions System.

Dubai Model Centre is currently working on carrying out a series of essential changes and developments to the system features, besides developing a reports mechanism for the benefit and use of participating agencies in accordance with the practical implementation of SMART system tools and mechanisms, which have been developed in collaboration with Dubai eGovernment.

Dubai Model Centre was launched by the Executive Council under the sponsorship of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council. The Centre aims to improve general services in Dubai to be the best worldwide. It also targets enabling government departments to improve their services at competitive global levels. The Centre is responsible for evaluation and motivation of general services in Dubai, and the enablement of necessary human resources to uplift general services to be the best and promoting its world-leading concepts.

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2013.