MOF Organises A Forum On The Coordination Of Fiscal Policies And Information In The UAE

The Ministry of Finance (MoF), in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), recently organised a forum on the coordination of fiscal policies and information in the UAE. The forum took place in Dubai over two consecutive days. The event follows MoF’s commitment to support coordination efforts amongst federal and local government financial institutions within the UAE and to promote the country’s position in the global competitiveness report.

The forum witnessed the participation of a group of financial experts and financial policy and information coordination specialists from a number of local federal entities in the UAE; including HE Walid Khalil Al Hashimi, Director General of the Department of Finance- Ajman; HE Sami Al Saqr, Director General of the Department of Finance – Ras Al Khaimah; HE Abdullah Nasser Lootah, Secretary General of the Emirates Competitiveness Council; HE Fatima Al Muhairi, Director of Financial Reports and Statistics at the Department of Finance – Dubai; HE Afaf Bu'aseebeh, Director of Economic Statistics Department at the Dubai Statistics Centre; Abdullah bin Touq, Director of Corporate Governance and Government Development, Prime Minister’s Office; Ahmed Abbas, Director of the Department of Economic Affairs at Prime Minister’s Office; Khalifa Ahmed Al Fahim, Investment Manager at the UAE Central Bank; along with representatives from MoF, finance departments in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah as well the Ministry of Presidency Affairs and the National Bureau of Statistics and Dubai Economic Council.

The list of speakers at the Forum on behalf of MoF included HE Younis Haji Al Khouri, Undersecretary of MoF; HE Saeed Rashid Al Yateem, Assistant Undersecretary of Resources and Budget Sector at MoF. Speakers from the IMF included Claudia Dziobek, Division Chief, Government Finance Statistics, IMF and a statistics expert of national calculations at the Central Statistics of Ireland.

In an opening speech, HE Younis Haji Al Khouri, Undersecretary of MoF welcomed all of the forum’s participants and stressed on the important role of such forums in building strategic partnerships with regional organisations and institutions to support development processes and to achieve economic and financial sustainability. HE stated: “MoF organised this forum in collaboration with the IMF to highlight best practices in order to enhance the use of financial statements and develop special mechanisms for financial policy planning at the state level.”

HE added: “The UAE has become a leading country in terms of coordinating, preparing financial statements and promoting transparency as well as disclosing them, which has been highlighted through the recent achievements in the IMF’s report that indicated the significant improvement experienced by the country in issuing reports and financial policies since 2008.”

HE continued: “The forum on the coordination of fiscal policies and information is considered one of the mechanisms to support the preparation of financial reports, financial policies, government finance statistics, supervising data collection and government financial reports, preparing government financial policies as well as consultations with regards to implementing projects on government budget and spending. This contributes significantly to support economic development. I call upon all local departments and participants to maximise the benefit from these discussions and lectures.”

During the forum, the IMF presented a set of worksheets related to the coordination of financial policies and information. On the first day of the forum, the IMF presented four working papers titled ‘Experiences in the Field of Fiscal Policy’, ‘Adopting an Analytical Tool for Measuring Fiscal Policy’, ‘Strengthening Capacity to Process Fiscal Data’. Furthermore, the IMF’s fourth working paper focused on the strategy to promote improvements in fiscal data.

During the second day of the forum, the IMF presented another four working papers on the general overview of the government finance statistics framework, updating the government’s institutional table, completing government statistical tables including the public sector debt statistics, and integration of government operations. MoF concluded the forum by presenting a working paper titled ‘Emirates Gate of GFS reports’

Emirate:  Abu Dhabi

Date: May 18, 2014

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