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UAE: Ministry of Finance announces transformational projects

The five projects align with the ‘We the UAE 2031’ vision

Published: Tue 11 Jul 2023, 4:55 PM

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The Ministry of Finance (MoF) announced five major strategic transformational projects to support its ongoing endeavours to implement national priorities and improve government financial work with the aim of further enhancing future readiness. These projects align with the ‘We the UAE 2031’ vision, which represents a national plan through which the UAE will continue its development path for the next decade and toward the next 50 years, and are part of the initiatives conforming with the UAE Digital Government Strategy to reaffirm the UAE’s global position as a leading and advanced country in the field of digital government.

Mohamed Bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, noted that the next stage of government work requires defining government priorities, making qualitative transformations, managing resources and budgets and implementing projects that aim to achieve the strategic goals, while strengthening joint action to lead the government development process and meet future requirements of the country.

Al Hussaini said: “In an everchanging world, we must harness more flexible and efficient work tools and methods to keep up with developments in various vital sectors. Through announcing these transformational projects, The Ministry of Finance aims to achieve comprehensive strategic goals and promote its leading role within various vital sectors such as procurement and supply. The ministry also aims to establish effective partnerships with the private sector to improve government services and finance the projects and implement them in an optimal way. This is in addition to stimulating expenditure on climate and environment to ensure a sustainable future for tomorrow’s generations. Additionally, the ministry is working on projects related to drawing tax policies and facilitating tax returns to ensure tax compliance and strengthen the tax legislative structure in the country while preserving the competitiveness of the economic environment and its ability to attract foreign investment.”

Supply strategy of the federal government: The first project, ‘Promising future in the supply strategy of the federal government’, aims to incorporate new categories of suppliers for the federal government to support national economic growth and enhance government efforts aimed at expanding and diversifying the supplier base in the federal government. This, in turn, contributes to improving the quality of services and products for federal procurement at competitive prices and achieves returns on the local economy through the application of National In-Country Value Programme’s (ICV) standards. During the past period, the ministry has been keen on working proactively with government entities to identify all government requirements and ensure that the government achieves the largest possible return from this continuously developing national transformational project.

Transparency in climate and environment spending data: The second project, ‘Enhancing competitiveness and transparency in data related to climate and environment spending data’, is based on providing data related to state level government expenditure on the climate and environment to be submitted to the International Monetary Fund and published on the climate change indicators dashboard, which calculates the indicators of countries’ policies related to spending on climate and the environment to measure their impact on macroeconomic sustainability and transparency. Users of the dashboard will be able to assess how economic and financial activities and government policies are linked to climate change and, on a wider scale, the environment . This project falls in line with the UAE’s ambitions as it works to boost the sustainability efforts and the country’s readiness to host COP28. The project will reflect the country’s overall efforts in climate action that it launches within the year of sustainability.

Public-private sector partnership: The third project, ‘The future phase of regulating public-private partnerships’, will establish an advanced mechanism for organising partnership projects between public and private sectors to achieve sustainable economic development and diversify financial resources. The Ministry of Finance has set up a mechanism that enables the public sector to attract and establish fruitful partnerships with the private sector in development projects, enhancing the efficiency of services provided by the federal government. With a proactive vision, The Ministry began implementing this project by involving all parties from the government and the private sector and launching various consulting practices to ensure that the project outputs are in line with the two sectors’ visions and the country’s aspirations in this field. The project is scheduled to be completed in December 2025.

Corporate tax: The ‘Imposing a Federal Tax on Corporations and Businesses’ project, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Finance through the preparation and establishment of the corporate tax policy, includes the legislative system for the policy, the issuance of the law, as well as executive regulations and related ministerial resolutions.

E-billing system: The Ministry of Finance works on the “e-billing system” project to develop an advanced electronic billing system and activate it at the country level. The system will automate the procedures for filing tax returns with the tax system to facilitate filing tax returns, improve tax compliance, and reduce cases of tax evasion. The project includes different phases and targets that are set to be completed by July 2025.



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