UAE's PM chairs cabinet meeting

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, congratulated UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the UAE people for the United Arab Emirates becoming number one (1st) globally in Government Efficiency and achieving the largest jump in the global competitiveness ranking in this year's Global Competitiveness Yearbook 2013, issued by the International Institute of Management Development in Switzerland. The UAE is now ranked eighth (8th) most competitive nation in the world. Chairing the Federal Cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace today, Sheikh Mohammed said the achievement was a culmination of concerted efforts made by both the federal and local governments. He expressed his gratitude to federal and local governments employees, urging them to make more efforts to further sharpen the UAE's competitiveness, which the UAE President termed as ''Trust at the hand of every Emirati and official''. Addressing the cabinet members, the vice president said, ''The UAE people deserve to celebrate and we are here to deliver achievements that make him glad and proud of his nation.'' Sheikh Mohammed said the achievement brought back memories of how the late founding fathers, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, sat in the desert discussing the creation of the Union. ''The UAE State was born amidst many suspicions and tremendous challenges that our fathers faced. The State structure was built and the UAE takes the lead amongst the community of nations,'' he added. Sheikh Mohammed said President Khalifa was maintaining the course of the founding fathers, taking care of every citizen and bringing development to every corner of the nation. ''Khalifa is our leader, who is mobilising concerted efforts, rallying energies, supporting initiatives and building the nation,'' Sheikh Mohammed said, adding, "We have placed our confidence in UAE citizens, and today we are reaping the fruits of excellence in many fields.'' He went on to say that employees have huge energies that should be released through continuous development and change. He emphasised, "The UAE people will only rest with first place and Zayed and Rashid bequeathed us the love of being No. 1 ... whenever we climb a peak we look forward for another one.'' In other business, the cabinet approved AED 250 million for establishing a federal joint-integrated electronic network for providing high-speed IT services to government entities within a safe, advanced infrastructure. The new network will connect all federal government bodies, raise efficiency, reduce costs and finally aid smooth and fast transformation into mobile government, recently launched by Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid. To that end, Sheikh Mohamed gave instructions for the setting up of a centre to run the network in one of the emirates. According to his instructions, the centre will be manned by Emirati professionals. The cabinet also gave its approval to the national bio-security strategy, which envisages planned response and development of human resources. The strategy provides for an integrated, well-established bio-security system that builds capacities for response, containment, control and mitigation of biological hazards. The ultimate goal is to protect the local community from any potential epidemics and preserve national gains. A federal draft law regulating then establishment, management and operation of private health facilities was also passed during today's cabinet session. The bill aims to ensure delivery of high quality health services to patients and stimulate investment in the private health sector. The cabinet also approved the preparation of a bill to establish a primary court at Dhaid in Sharjah, to bring judicial services closer to clients. The cabinet approved the national qualification system, which will provide an integrated classification of qualifications in the general and higher education and vocational training education according to learning outcomes, as per ten levels starting from level 1 to PhD. The joint classification system covers both education and training in the economic and industrial sectors. It is a national system that allows calculation and transfer of accumulated credits, giving learners the ability to smoothly shift between education and training paths. It also achieves mutual recognition of national qualifications at international level and aligns education and training programmes with job market needs. The system encourages a life-long learning approach and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). The cabinet gave a green light for the executive regulations of the federal anti-tobacco law, which defines standard specifications, and bans smoking in a vehicle if a child under 12 years is traveling in it. The law also bans tobacco advertisements and promotion. The regulations also define terms for the sale of tobacco and designates public places where smoking is either allowed or not. Requirements for licensing for cafes and grace period for tobacco operating farms and factories were also set by the legislation. The prime goal of the law is to reduce the harmful effects of smoking on the health of individuals and the community. A raft of international cooperation agreements for boosting trade and economic relations with sisterly and friendly countries were also passed.