Dubai Strategic Plan 2030 promises a brighter future for one and all

Op-ed by Hisham Al Gurg, CEO, Seed Group and the Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum

To commence, I would like to quote one of my favourite inventors of all time.

Thomas Edison: “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.”

Yes. ‘Plan’ gives you the rare opportunity of understanding and feeling what success would be like before you reach your goal. Planning, therefore, has something very powerful about it and the UAE seems to exemplify that.

Over the years, if there is one thing I have observed and began to admire the most about the UAE, it is the nation’s extraordinary ability to successfully operate multifaceted programs on a large scale and make country-wide strategies work step-by-step, as planned at all levels. I don’t think there is any other country in the world that does it with this precision and immaculacy and with such beamingly evident results that show in the standards of living and the exemplary infrastructure the UAE has been able to boast of, in a very short period of time.

The credit of this enviable success goes to the strategic planning, and the short-term and long-term national and emirate-wide goals that the leadership works, keeping in broad view. Since the very beginning, the UAE has worked with certain plans in hand and followed them to chase goals and achieve milestones that show further direction in terms of development.

Recently, for example, the Executive Council of Dubai chaired by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, approved of the Dubai Strategic Plan 2030. The plan has been designed to serve as a road map for the Emirate’s innovation-driven growth in the coming 10 years.

The fact that the country has developed a plan to closely monitor projects and initiatives with an aim to consolidate sustainable development and global positioning goals, speaks volumes about the futuristic approach of the leadership and hence the country. The way the plan will shape the country is a separate conversation altogether.

The plan brings together a task force, which includes 44 representatives of government and semi-government entities belonging to different economic sectors, to set a comprehensive agenda for the emirate’s progress until 2030. It intends to further improve the business environment and enhance people’s happiness and prosperity by looking at various aspects of everyday life, keeping in mind the global competitiveness indexes and benchmarks.

The entire agenda is to get positioned as a model for sustainable development, to promote growth on the back of innovation, and set higher benchmarks for excellence.

In line with the long-term goals like the UAE Centennial 2071, the strategic development blueprint is a well-thought-out, carefully crafted, people-centric, and result-oriented plan that is bound to promise a brighter future for everyone in Dubai and make it the best city to live and work as per the overarching vision that has been set out for the emirate by our leadership.