The joint Gulf health work results great achievements.
Rashid Al Nuaimi, Staff Reporter
The UAE topped most of the comprehensive development indicators for the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, in the eyes of the regional and international community in terms of comprehensive health coverage, ensuring the quality of higher education, and cultural renaissance, in the latest report monitored by the Gulf Statistics Centre.
The centre issues a bulletin that includes the most prominent statistical indicators and informatics related to the policies and strategies of the GCC countries, which support the process of joint Gulf action.
The report indicated that the wise leadership of the leaders of the GCC countries assumes all support factors, to ensure that the Gulf citizen enjoys comprehensive health care coverage, and it comes within the priorities of the decisions of the Supreme Council in the field of services and comprehensive health coverage, because health is an important sector.
Aware of the steps achieved by the joint Gulf health work, within the framework of cooperation, coordination, integration and interdependence resulted in great achievements that contributed to the health sector keeping pace with the comprehensive development process witnessed by the GCC countries.
Achieving health progress is one of the solid foundations for sustainable development, in addition to what it achieves in order to maximise the gains of Gulf citizenship related to the principle of full equality for its citizens in providing health services in all member states as citizens.
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The UAE topped the indicators of progress made for the performance of the GCC countries.
In the health care systems, it ranked first with a rate of 70.6% in the health care index, and 100% in the indicators of health care coverage and prenatal care for the year 2023, and the progress indicator of health care performance.
The UAE ranked first in the Global Health Index in the Middle East and North Africa for the year 2023 in the regional ranking out of 19 countries.
The UAE topped the index of spending on research and development.
It ranked among the developed countries, in the index of preventive measures for children from infections for the year 2023, by 100%, and topped the index of the performance of the Gulf cooperation countries in the index of good physical health for the year 2023.
Quality of education
The report said that the leaders of the GCC countries have paid great attention to higher education and all its branches, scientific and university academic institutions and research centres.
The leaders believe that education is a fundamental pillar for achieving the requirements of sustainable development goals by focusing efforts on preparing educated national cadres, who are familiar with knowledge and modern sciences.
The UAE topped the index of spending on research and development, in a percentage of the gross domestic product, at 26.5%.
It also scored 100%, along with all GCC countries, in the progress made in the performance of its universities, in the indicator of faculty holding doctorates in international universities.
It also entered three universities among the top 10 Arab universities, according to the latest ranking of the best international universities for the year 2023, which are the UAEU, Khalifa University and American University of Sharjah.
Cultural renaissance
The report stated that culture in the GCC countries constituted a distinct pattern based on an ancient civilisational heritage, pride in the Arab and Islamic identity, and an enlightened openness to the cultures of nations and peoples. From this standpoint, the leaders of the GCC states paid great attention to the Gulf cultural identity, and made it a cornerstone in the strategic development plans aimed at building the Gulf nation.
The UAE ranked first in the Global Health Index in the Middle East.
The UAE topped the performance index of the GCC countries in the indicators of creative and cultural industries for the year 2023, in the value of the index of the volume of exports out of total exports by 100%.
The Sharjah Book Fair leads the Gulf exhibitions in attracting participating publishing houses, which numbers 2,213 in the 2022 session.