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In line with his commitment to innovation as a key pillar of future government work, H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and the Minister of Finance of the UAE, inaugurated on Wednesday the Innovation Lab at the Ministry of Finance (MoF) Headquarters in Dubai.

He attended the first brainstorming session of the Innovation Lab, as part of UAE’s innovation week.

Sheikh Hamdan toured various sections and facilities of the Innovation Lab. He was briefed on the Lab’s most prominent technologies adopted to promote and instill a culture of innovation.

The Innovation Lab aims to create an environment that motivates and inspires staff to develop ideas and projects to improve the government’s financial system and support in achieving the Ministry’s strategic goals.

Sheikh Hamdan participated in the Innovation Lab’s first brainstorming session, which was organised by the Government Innovation team, entitled: "Sustainable financial management for the youth of the future." The session discussed frameworks of sustainable financial management, and how to introduce them to the youth to apply these frameworks in their fields within the Ministry.

He praised the Innovation Lab and its role in promoting a culture of innovation and providing an effective and interactive platform for the Ministry’s staff to engage in dialogue and explore solutions to perform tasks in an innovative manner. "Successful countries are the ones capable to stimulate the minds of the youth towards creativity and innovation, and provide them with an environment with the latest tools to become active and successful leaders who are able to achieve excellence in their fields."

Sheikh Hamdan was accompanied by Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, Younis Haji Al Khouri, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, as well as leaders in the Ministry and the Government Innovation team.

Al Tayer said, "The UAE has achieved important milestones in global innovation indicators, in which the country ranked first regionally and 41st worldwide. Due to its important role in building the future and achieving sustainable economic and social development, the UAE has worked towards instilling a culture of innovation in the work environment and within daily tasks. Our aim during this festival was to focus on societal innovation and encourage the community to participate in launching innovative ideas and initiatives."

On the second and last day of the Innovation Festival, MoF organised a panel discussion entitled "Cities of Knowledge: Policies for Diversification and Innovation", which saw a debate between Dr. Bruno Lanvin, Executive Director of the Global Indicators at INSEAD, and Fuad Hasanov, a Senior Economist from the IMF on cities of knowledge. In addition, John Straw, author of the book "iDisrupted" presented a keynote on the "3 dimensional disruption" and the impact of technology in supporting innovation.

During the final day of the Innovation Festival, MoF hosted an event titled ‘Innovation Connect’, which provided startups in Cybersecurity and FinTech, the opportunity to present their projects to a group of investors for future cooperation and business development. MOF received 66 participations requests from 24 countries, from which 12 companies qualified to attend and participate in this event.

The Innovation Festival concluded with the Ministry honouring the winners of various activities, and offering them cash prizes in the form of e-dirhams, as well as from the "Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Fund to Finance Innovation". The three winners of the x-Innovation Challenge in the Health, Education and Environment categories received a cash prize of AED 10,000 each. The top three finalists of the Hackathon received cash prizes worth AED 35,000, AED 25,000, and AED 20,000 respectively. The Ministry also rewarded the winners of Innovation Connect in the Investor Favorite, Corporate Favorite, and Audience Favorite categories, on topics of Cybersecurity and FinTech and Internet of Things (IoT).

On the first day of the Innovation Festival, the Ministry of Finance launched the e-platform of ‘Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Fund to Finance Innovation’, which provides funding solutions and the appropriate environment to support entrepreneurs and innovators to assist them in transforming their ideas and innovations into projects that support the National Innovation Strategy and achieve the UAE Vision 2021.