A high level delegation from Seychelles recently undertook an official mission to the United Arab Emirates, to explore areas of cooperation between the two countries, in the field of improvement and development of government activities.
The mission follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, in March, 2022, by the Minister of Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry, Mrs. Devika Vidot, on behalf of the Minister for Finance, National Planning and Trade, Mr. Naadir Hassan.
The delegation, consisting of representatives from the Ministries of Finance, National Planning and Trade, Investment, Entrepreneurship and Industry, Public Service Bureau and the Department of Information, Communication and Technology, was headed by Minister Hassan.
Specific areas of cooperation include those in line with government services, government accelerators, government performance and strategic foresight, planning and strategy management. This would further complement and strengthen the Results Based Management framework which the government is currently implementing as part of the public sector reform.
The visit allowed the Seychelles delegation to further explore the areas for cooperation, through knowledge exchange and best practices.
The working mission which was a combination of meetings with relevant ministries and onsite visits, included discussions with officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications and Ministry of possibilities.
The UAE’s government has fully automated its budget process, from preparation, approval, monitoring to control of expenditure, and this mechanism is a platform that the Seychelles government is fully interested in and willing to adopt.
Along the same line, the e-procurement platform adopted by the UAE is another area of interest, which the Seychelles delegation was briefed on, as Seychelles is also looking at modernizing its procurement system.
“As the government continues on its path of digitalizing its services and endorsing the use of technology in its everyday business, the adoption of technology to facilitate the budget cycle and the procurement process, can only serve to bring more efficiency, control, transparency and accountability”, said Minister Hassan.
The delegation also visited a one stop service centre, offering services from different government agencies, which integrates artificial intelligence solutions and robotic technologies. The centre provides access to several government services, such as registration of births, marriages and employment, by using a single account.
The delegation also, was briefed on two initiatives:
UAE Leadership Programme: – This programme has as objective to train government and private sector employees, offering courses in strategic leadership programme, executive leaders programme, future leaders programme and UAE youth leaders programme.
Government Accelerators: This is a model to accelerate tangible results in 100 days or less. This initiative is aimed at accelerating implementation, planning and decision-making. It focuses on challenges faced by the country and ways in addressing these in the short term. It brings together government entities, private sector, academia and NGOS to find solutions to the problems faced by the government. This fosters collaboration between the different bodies and innovation.
At the conclusion of the mission, Minister Hassan noted that the mission allows for the ‘Seychelles delegation to learn about best practices, which would enhance the country’s public service, by adopting best practices and technology to deliver efficiently. Also, the programmes, the UAE has in place have proven to be very successful, thus they can assist us to develop such courses designed specifically for our public sector college. We are grateful to the UAE for embarking on such a journey of transformation of our public service with Seychelles.’