MoF Organises Workshop for Nominated Entities in the Ministry of Possibilities’ Government Procurement Department

Under the patronage of H.E. Obaid Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Finance, the Ministry of Finance's Ministry of Possibilities organised a workshop titled “Design Thinking” for its federal partners on Thursday, September 26th at the Innovation Lab at the Ministry of Finance’s headquarters in Dubai. The workshop is part of the ministry’s efforts to develop an integrated digital platform for government procurement, in response to H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai’s directives to enhance the government’s procurement efficiency through an electronic platform, which will allow federal entities to complete their purchase within 6 minutes instead of 60 days. The workshop was aimed at identifying solutions and brainstorming innovative ideas, to help develop the platform.

H.E. Obaid Humaid Al Tayer praised the efforts of the Government Procurement Department teams from various federal entities, highlighting the importance of building an easy-to-use platform. He also noted that the platform should have an innovative and sustainable model, offering proactive solutions that support small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, as well as interdependence and coordination with federal financial systems, with the overall aim to improve customer satisfaction.

H.E. pointed out that the team from the Government Procurement Department at the Ministry of Finance worked with several federal authorities, as well as suppliers from SMEs, in order to conduct comprehensive studies and analyses of the current situation to identify development opportunities that would achieve H.H.’s directives.

During the workshop, it was agreed upon to design the platform by presenting an audience overview of the project objectives and implementation scope, as well as by identifying the nature of government procurement and suppliers of SMEs and assessing their needs. Additionally, the workshop included a presentation on international best practices and illustrative examples. The workshop concluded with a summary of the outputs and the next steps.

The Ministry of Possibilities is the world’s first virtual ministry, which aims to re-engineer government systems and processes through proactive solutions to challenges within a pre-ordained time. The government procurement platform is one of the first projects of the Ministry of Possibilities, and is currently in its first phase. The platform, which will feature a unified, efficient and flexible government procurement mechanism, will be implemented in six phases over a period of up to 12 months.