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Cabinet stresses commitment to make community happy through happiness and positivity Charter. Creates CEO and Council for Happiness in all Federal Government Entities

The UAE Cabinet, chaired over by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, endorsed the launch of corporate happiness and positivity initiatives in the UAE Federal Government.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid said “happiness and positivity in the UAE are a lifestyle, a government commitment and a spirit uniting the UAE community. The government system is evolving to realize the goals that every human seeks: happiness for him and his family.”

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid added “we are at the beginning of our journey, learning day-by-day to achieve goodness and happiness for the individual. We wish happiness for all the peoples and countries in the world.”

The UAE Cabinet endorsed The National Happiness and Positivity Charter which stipulates the UAE Government’s commitment, through its higher policies, plans, projects and services, to provide a nurturing environment for the happiness of the person, family and community, instill positivity as a core value in them so that they are able to achieve their goals and ambitions.

The Cabinet also endorsed a number of initiatives and projects in line with the National happiness and Positivity Programme submitted by HE ohood hint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Happiness to create the happiest government environment globally. The National Programme includes appointment of CEO for Happiness and Positivity in all entities, setup happiness and positivity councils in all entities as well. It also includes allocating hours for happiness programmes and activities in federal government as well as setup happy and positive offices. The National Happiness and Positivity Programme also includes transferring customer service centres to customer happiness centres as well as culture-change programmes for customer service to make customers happy. It will also set indicators, conduct surveys and prepare annual reports to measure happiness levels in all sectors.

Hence, the Cabinet endorsed in its meeting a number of corporate initiatives in conjunction with the World Happiness Day which coincides on 20^th March. these come in line with the National Happiness and Positivity Programme, launched earlier this month by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai which includes three pillars: include happiness and positivity in government policies and services, instill values of happiness and positivity as a lifestyle in the UAE, develop tools to measure happiness in the community.

The recently-launched initiatives focus on the first pillar: The National Happiness and Positivity Charter, happy work environment and services

The National Happiness and Positivity Charter

The National Happiness and Positivity Charter aims to instill concepts of happiness and positivity from the UAE perspective, sets the UAE commitment towards the community to realize these values. It also aims the UAE will be a centre and global destination for that. All government entities will work towards implementing the charter to reach these goals.

Happy Work Environment

It includes five initiatives:

• Corporate Happiness and Positivity Model in the UAE: it is a unified model for all government entities consisting three pillars: corporate happiness culture, happy and positive staff requirements, and corporate happiness and positivity indicators.
• Setting up Happiness and Positivity Council in Federal Government entities includes representatives from different sectors that cover services provided by the entity. The Council aims to align policies and services to realize community happiness, launch and follow up relevant initiatives as well as streamline happiness and positivity in internal work environment.
• Happiness and Positivity CEO: one of the current federal government staff member will be appointed as Happiness and Positivity CEO by the Minister or Chairman to ensure streamlining happiness and positivity culture in the entity as well as coordinate with the Office of the Minister of State for Happiness to implement initiatives by the National Happiness and Positivity Programme and manage relevant initiatives to spread happiness among customers and staff. CEO will launch work environment classification programmes in public and private sectors according to happiness levels.
• Allocate time in federal entities for happiness and positivity activities: they aim at instilling happiness and positivity culture in the Federal Government inside the entity or outside to ensure community happiness.
• “happy and positive offices” in the government: to create a happy and positive work environment continuously through activities conducted in an innovate, effective manner.

Government Services

The Government Services include six corporate initiatives: renaming customer service centres to customer happiness centres; rename job titles of customer service staff to customer happiness staff. It also included endorsing Customer Happiness Charter.

The initiatives also included introducing Happiness and Positivity Happiness Heroes Medal, which is a periodic special recognition for frontline staff in customer service who enjoy positivity and happiness and recognizing their exceptional work to make customers happy. The initiatives will also include launch Customer Happiness Guideline, and Customer happiness Measurement.

On the other hand, the Cabinet endorsed setting up a world-class, specialized medical training facility in order to train and equip local skills to meet the growing market needs. The medical training facility is in line with the UAE Government’s priorities to improve healthcare sector and continually improve its services.

Meanwhile, it reviewed and endorsed recommendations on a financing mechanism study designed for federal universities and colleges, which focuses on setting performance indicators such as improving graduation rates of students, employment rates, as well as reducing dropouts and increase research. The Study recommendations focused on allocating a percentage of total government support for universities adopted annually to be paid based on performance.

The mechanism will contribute to enhance transparency and improve performance. It will also help setting regulations for admission and registration procedures at universities and prioritize the acceptance of different categories of students. The study reflects the priority the UAE Government to develop the educational environment and provide incentives that encourage students to innovate to contribute to the country in various fields.

On the other hand, the Cabinet approved the 2016 Federal Government Unified Financial System, which aims to enhance the performance of government work and leverage performance and efficiency of employees in the financial field to all sections in the Federal Government. It also issued a Cabinet Decree on regulations and percentage related to applying Federal Law No 4/2012 to regulate competition.

Addressing Government affairs, the Cabinet signed the agreement to host the regional office of The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI). GGGI was founded on the belief that economic growth and environmental sustainability are not merely compatible objectives; their integration is essential for the future of humankind. It seeks to work with partners in the public and private sectors in developing and emerging countries around the world to put green growth at the heart of economic planning. The UAE Government adopts policies to turn its economy into green.

It also approved joining the Advisory Centre on World Trade Organization Law (ACWL), which is an international organization established in 2001 to provide legal advice on WTO law, support in WTO dispute settlement proceedings and training in WTO law.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet approved the proposed 2016 budget of the Emirates Transport. It also endorsed the closing statement of the 2014 Fiscal Year of The General Pension and Social Security Authority.

On the international level, the UAE Cabinet ratified a number of international agreements to boost economic and technical cooperation such as the Protocol amending the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). It also endorsed setting up UAE embassies in some countries.

The UAE Cabinet held its meeting at the Presidential Palace and was attended by His Highness Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior and His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.