Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), on Tuesday launched the Dubai Future Readiness Index at the World Government Summit (WGS) 2023. This year’s WGS is hosting 20 heads of state, 300 international speakers and over 80 global organisations in Dubai from 13 to 15 February 2023.

The DFF has developed the first-of-its-kind index in collaboration with the Dubai Government Excellence Program (DGEP) to improve the readiness of Dubai government entities to tackle global and local challenges, promote innovation, and empower employees to design future strategies. The index aims to position Dubai as a leading city of the future that prioritises well-being and safeguards livelihoods, while also ensuring it is one of the most prepared cities to overcome challenges and leverage future opportunities.

The launch of the Dubai Future Readiness Index was attended by Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group; Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority; and a number of senior officials and directors of Dubai government departments.

Sheikh Hamdan said: “We have launched the Dubai Future Readiness Index to continue the government’s journey of excellence started 25 years ago by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The index is designed to ensure that future readiness is a key indicator in evaluating the performance of Dubai government entities.”

“To realise our leadership’s vision, government entities must always be prepared for local and global challenges, changes, and opportunities. We encourage our government entities to prioritise empowering their employees with future-shaping skills and promote innovation. We aim to position the Dubai Future Readiness Index as a leading global model that can support other governments worldwide in developing their strategies,” Sheikh Hamdan added.

“The index will identify opportunities and priorities, highlight areas for improvement, and develop knowledge-exchange programmes. This will foster the exchange of best practices among government entities,” Sheikh Hamdan said.

“Dubai’s government ecosystem is built on continuous innovation, proactive planning, and a comprehensive approach to anticipating future trends and transformations. This ecosystem has consolidated Dubai’s position as a leader in future readiness and as a provider of exceptional government services regionally and globally.”

Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed concluded: “It is crucial for Dubai’s government entities to adopt flexible and innovative models when delivering their services, achieving their goals, and implementing their strategies. The new index will encourage government entities to foster a culture of innovation, excellence and leadership, as well as encourage a proactive approach to enhancing readiness for future challenges. It is vital to continue developing benchmarks and indicators that align with our goals and aspirations.”

The new index, which includes 66 sub-indicators across five key areas, will evaluate government entities on their readiness to address new opportunities and challenges, future-ready ecosystems, and their ability to adopt new technologies. It will also assess their efficiency in designing potential future scenarios and capacity building in future foresight.

The index will release a biennial report listing the most future-ready government entities, and these entities will be evaluated as part of the Dubai Government Excellence Program. The index outcomes will entail an independent institutional assessment by global experts and employee surveys, using the pre-established indicators of the central government entities.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has demonstrated how diversified economies can better adapt to major shocks, revealed the Global Economic Diversification Index 2023, the latest edition of the report, launched by the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG) with a panel of global experts from the IMF and the World Bank at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

The second edition of the Index, which is developed by the MBRSG in partnership with The World Government Summit, expands its coverage in 2023 to a total of 105 countries, up from 83 last year. It continues to cover all geographies, resource and non-resource-based economies over a period of 22 years. The Index quantifies countries’ diversification journey globally, by specifically focusing on three aspects of diversification: Output diversification, trade diversification and government revenue diversification.

The EDI is the first comprehensive global assessment of economic diversification that allows for an international, cross-country, and regional comparison and ranking of countries. As a policy and decision making tool, it is designed to allow countries to visualize their global ranking on each measure of diversification (production, government revenue, trade), across regional and income groups and within their natural resource grouping. The data of the EDI is already informing policy pathways across governments and with international agencies around the world.

Overall, the 2023 EDI rankings revealed that the top 10 most diversified economies have remained the same. The United States, China, and Germany have held on to their top three positions. However, the gap between the US and China narrowed from a 21.6-point difference in 2019 to just a six-point difference in 2022. The results also show that the size of the economy is not an impediment to economic diversification as several of the top 10 countries are relatively small economies, including Singapore, Switzerland and Ireland, were able to diversify their economic output base and trade.

The report indicates that over time, the gap between the most and least diversified nations has mostly widened. The MENA region has witnessed a notable improvement towards the latter part of the 2010s decade as many oil exporters began to accelerate their diversification plans. Meanwhile, in the GCC region, UAE and Saudi Arabia have made the most significant economic diversification progress.