UAE to develop strategy to deal with aftermath of coronavirus

Dubai: A national development strategy to deal with the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic will be launched. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, gave instructions to develop the strategy during a video conference meeting of the Cabinet on Sunday.

As per Sheikh Mohammed’s directives, a series of intensive federal and local government meetings featuring ministers, undersecretaries, executive councils and global experts will be held regularly to shape the UAE’s post-COVID-19 strategy.

He called for developing detailed policies in the short and long term to ensure the recovery of economic activity as well as growth and stability across economic and community sectors in the country.

Sheikh Mohammed stressed the importance of engaging brilliant local, Arab and international minds and experts to participate in intellectual and analytical seminars, whose outputs constitute theoretical and practical frameworks for policy-making and setting visions to build new foundations and action mechanisms in all sectors.

The new plans and policies should take into account vital sectors that are key to development and community mobility, primarily health, education, technology and food security.

Sheikh Mohammed underlined that people’s safety, security, well-being and mental health must be at the heart of such policies and plans, and in parallel with state’s foreign policies in coordination with the international community to ensure a global economic and geopolitical cooperation to best address, contain and reduce the consequences of health and environmental disasters.

Sheikh Mohammed also ordered the setting up of a working group to study the dossier of the national medical and pharmaceutical industries in the UAE to develop investment opportunities for the medical industry sector and enhance production capacity.

The team, chaired by the Ministry of Energy and Industry, will roll out an emergency plan to increase the productivity and competitiveness of the medical industries sector as part of preparation for the post-COVID-19 era in the country.

Other teams have been set up to work swiftly in response to daily and rapid changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our national priorities need to reviewed to cope with the post-COVID-19 world…Our financial and human resources need to be redirected to strengthen our medical, food and economic security through new programmes and projects… Preparing for the post-COVID-19 is preparing for a new future that no one predicted a few months ago,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

During the remote meeting, the Cabinet approved a draft law amending some provisions of the Federal Law on Commercial Companies aiming at strengthening and raising UAE’s rankings on global competitiveness indicators.

The amendment also aims to create an attractive business environment supporting the national economy. The draft law targets companies and foreign investors representing international companies and investment funds.

The Cabinet also approved a federal law regulating the union of landlords to enhance the sustainability of infrastructure and increase community engagement in preserving sustainability of infrastructure within housing projects and residential communities to preserve and ensure sustainability of common properties in communities.

The organisational structure of the Ministry of Justice was approved during the virtual Cabinet meeting, within the framework of upgrading the work system at the ministry in all its sectors, strengthening legislation and the rule of law and upgrading the services provided to customers, which reflects positively on the indicator of competitiveness in the advancement of the UAE’s position at the international level.

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