MoF participates in the meeting of the Government Finance Statistics Advisory Committee (GFSAC) at the IMF headquarters in Washington D.C

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) participates in the meeting of the Government Finance Statistics Advisory Committee (GFSAC) being held at the IMF headquarters in Washington D.C between the 14-16 March 2017.

 The Ministry’s participation in the meeting reflects its commitment towards growing its international relations and strengthening the UAE’s global position in terms of government statistics and data.

During the second meeting of GFSAC, the UAE was represented by Abeer Al Abdooli, Director of the Financial Policies Coordination Department at MoF. MoF is a member of the GFS Advisory Committee that will meet under IMF auspices every two years or as needed.

Saeed Rashid Al Yateem, Assistant Undersecretary of Resources and Budget Sector at MoF, and Vice President of the Financial Policy Coordination Council, said: “The Ministry of Finance commits to collecting and distributing the UAE’s consolidated financial data according to the International Monetary Fund’s requirements and aligns its accounting structures at a local level. This plays a key role in identifying the overall size of government operations and the contribution of government sectors in the national economy, a key element in analysing sound public financials, developing financial programmes and monitoring their implementation."

HE added: “Collecting and distributing financial data comes in line with the UAE’s smart government strategy of 2017-2021 and UAE Vision 2021. The UAE Vision 2021 aims to build a smart federal government with an international level of efficiency, and rank the UAE as one of the developed nations by the UAE’s golden jubilee National Day. MoF implemented the GFS manual which adopts the latest international standards and the transparency methodology in developing financial statistical reports with high efficiency and quality.”

During the meeting, MoF showcased the Emirates Gate for GFS reports system which has been developed based on the IMF’s 2014 GFS manual. The system collects and consolidates financial data as well as provides an electronic review of the data in various sectors at both the local and federal government levels. This is successfully done by providing a safe and effective environment so that the Ministry has access to accurate data, while ensuring the independence of regulations and accounting principles exercised by the federal government and local governments in the UAE. The Ministry won the “Idea of the Year 2016’ for its projects Emirates Gate of GFS Reports at the 11^th Ideas Arabia award ceremony.

IMF plays a key role in providing recommendations to member countries related to financial and economic policies and enabling the opportunity to exchange information and expertise through meetings and events. The Fund created the GFSAC as an objective to develop high quality government financial statistics and to ensure the implementation of a sound methodology, in order to support and assist countries which offers support to the countries when analysing the statistics and data as per the IMF’s guidelines on data.

The IMF launched the first GFS manual in 1986 followed by a second issue in 2001 and a third in 2014. During the preparation for the GFSM, IMF made sure to cooperation and discuss the manual with the GFSAC, government financial experts of member countries, regional and global organisations including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank.