Five core sectors — human resources, environment, security, economy and education — will be key thrust areas under an ambitious federal plan to achieve national agenda goals as part of the government accelerators programme, it was announced on Sunday.

The first government accelerators in the world were officially launched on Sunday by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. He also approved the execution plan for achieving the goals of the National Agenda. He directed officials to intensify efforts to achieve a 100 per cent completion rate for the National Agenda goals.

The first batch of government accelerators will focus on five ministries — the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, and Ministry of Education.

Present during the launch were Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince, Lieutenant General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, and Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future.

Sheikh Mohammad emphasised that a successful country is not measured by its size but by how quickly it completes achievements and innovates solutions for challenges facing the transition into the future.

“The launch of the first government accelerators in the world represents a new phase in which we boost the efforts of government bodies to make them work as a single entity in one location, so that they can exchange views and take direct decisions to overcome challenges and find suitable solutions that can achieve the aspirations of the people,” said Sheikh Mohammad.

“The accelerators have multiple tasks and responsibilities, boosting the pace for achieving the goals of the National Agenda and projects. Directives have been issued for all government bodies under the umbrella of the accelerators programme to develop initiatives, laws, policies and services that support national indexes and programmes. The government bodies will also be tasked with implementing joint projects in record time in order to shift government services into advanced standards by 2021,” said Sheikh Mohammad.

He added that every effort exerted by the government aims to raise standards of living in Emirati society. He said that the accelerators were launched to achieve this goal using effective methods that rely on creativity in the ideal utilisation of resources. The Vice-President pointed out that he will personally follow up on developments pertaining to the implementation of the plans and desired objectives.

Later, Sheikh Mohammad inspected the Government Accelerators headquarters at Emirates Towers that will include the five aforementioned ministries.

The head office includes office spaces, meeting rooms and specialised innovation labs.

Sheikh Mohammad then listened to a presentation by government accelerators work teams. The presentation gave a detailed explanation regarding the project’s phases and objectives.

Sheikh Mohammad and ministers were then briefed by the officials of the programme on work plans and challenges that they will work on finding solutions for.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, in partnership with the private sector, will work on providing 1,000 job opportunities for Emiratis seeking jobs in the financial sector within a period of 75 days. This will pave the way for increasing the Emiratisation rate in the private sector by 5 per cent by 2021. The work team will consist of representatives from Emirates Institute For Banking and Financial Studies, Noor Bank, Insurance Authority, UAE Central Bank, Emirates NBD, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Majid Al Futtaim Group, Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company, Al Rostamani Group and Al Fardan Exchange.

The Ministry of Interior will work on reducing traffic accident fatalities on the country’s five most dangerous roads. The target is to reduce fatalities by 21 per cent between December 15 – February 15, compared to the same period last year. This goal will be achieved with the help of the police, ambulances, Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Roads and Transport Authority, and Emirates Traffic Safety Society.

The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment will work on improving the quality of air, the equivalent of reducing the carbon emissions of 280,000 cars, within 100 days.

The work team’s members are Emirates Global Aluminium (DUBAL and EMAL), General Electric and the ministry. The objective is in line with the National Agenda index for improving air quality.

The Ministry of Education will work on enrolling all Emirati children in nurseries within a period of 90 days. The work team consists of the ministry, parents and nursery administrations.

The Ministry of Economy will increase the number of patent applications by five times in three months. The goal is to improve the UAE’s stature as a regional and international hub for intellectual property. The work team consists of the ministry, Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), national universities, Takamul programme and the ICT Development Fund.

The ministry will also work alongside the SCA to issue a legal statute on risk capital by January 5, 2017. This will help facilitate the work of innovators, attract risk-based capital to the UAE and boost the UAE’s rank in the global innovation index.