Single vision planned for capital

A clearly defined strategy for Abu Dhabi's future will prevent government bodies from replicating each other's work, an official says.

ABU DHABI // A clearly defined strategy for Abu Dhabi's future will prevent government bodies from replicating each other's work, an official said yesterday. The policy agenda produced by the Executive Council last year outlined the vision for the emirate over the next few decades, and the changes needed in education, health, transport and other services. A conference in Abu Dhabi yesterday heard the vision would be futile without a carefully planned strategy detailing how departments should reach their targets. Such a framework would help turn Abu Dhabi's vision into a reality, the conference was told.

Hamid al Hashemi, the manager of the performance evaluation and control department of the general secretariat of the Executive Council, said work started last year on drafting a detailed strategy for government departments to reach their targets. "The policy agenda gives us a vision and a strategic direction we are going in, and we can use the detailed planning aspects of that as a basis. From there, government departments can formulate their own strategies.

"We are aiming for all government entities to follow the same way of doing things and share a commonality of goals and vision. "The risks of not doing this is that entities will continue working differently without knowing the others' priorities, without using their resources well and with duplication of effort with projects being handled by different entities." @Email:[e-mail]