16 November 2024, Sat |
3:29 AM
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has organised the virtual Agile Governance Global Summit, as part of its efforts to share the best international experiences and practices in governance and corporate agility. A large number of public and private organisations inside and outside the UAE also participated in the summit.
HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, opened the summit. HE Abdul Rahman Al Hareb, Director General of Dubai Financial Audit Authority, HE Mohammed bin Taliah, Chief of Government Services of the UAE Government, and a number of global experts in governance, corporate agility, resilience and sustainability, also took part.
In his keynote speech, Al Tayer said that DEWA organised the Agile Governance Global Summit to discuss best practices in governance to enable organisations to become more agile and resilient in their operations. This is especially important amidst the rapid changes in the modern business environment for the public and private sectors, and the global changes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. During this outbreak, the UAE Government presented itself as a role model in managing a crisis effectively and competently.
“We work to achieve the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who has directed the implementation of the highest standards of good governance in government work. To do this, DEWA applies the best governance practices within a comprehensive system of integrated corporate work that covers all activities and operations. DEWA is one of the leading organisations in the world in corporate governance.
Its resilience and agility have played an important role in its excellence and its success in turning challenges into promising opportunities. DEWA has applied effective governance practices that have contributed to its achieving globally competitive results. Its practices have become benchmarks for many organisations around the world,” said Al Tayer.
“In line with its strategy to become the first fully agile utility and its vision to become a globally leading sustainable innovative corporation, DEWA has been proactively developing several pioneering global standards in collaboration with the British Standards Institute. These include the PAS 60518 Enterprise Risk & Resilience Management standard. This is the first of its kind in the world to manage risk and resilience in utilities. Another is the PAS 1000:2019 Business Agility Concept and Framework: the first-of-its-kind global guide for business agility. I am confident that this summit will be an important opportunity to exchange global experiences in different areas of governance and corporate agility,” concluded Al Tayer.
“The rapid response to challenges is one of the measurements of effective governance systems and risk management, and it is in this vein we pay tribute to the efforts of our wise leadership in managing challenges and turning them into promising opportunities. Our lasting objective is to support Dubai’s journey towards excellence, and to ensure that this goal is achieved, and in cooperation with all concerned, we are constantly aligning our work to the strategic needs of the Emirate of Dubai. In keeping with the vision of our wise leadership, we, at the Financial Audit Authority, aim at promoting the concepts of agile governance, promote the responsibility and accountability principle and ensure sustainable excellence in the Emirate of Dubai.
Always knowing that we are not isolated from the challenges around us, we consider every challenge as an opportunity for continued development, and we are keen to work with the concerned entities to ensure that institutional practices are equal and compatible with best practices that are flexible in terms of global standards and modern technologies,” said Al Hareb.
Bin Taliah said that COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on all sectors, provided a great opportunity for government entities to test their agility, technical maturity and prove its dynamic work model, and enabled them to deliver remote services seamlessly and efficiently. He reiterated the UAE government commitment to prepare for the future through developing digital infrastructure, designing new policies, and monitoring the impact of its services, to achieve the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai; to further develop and maintain best government performance at all times.
Bin Taliah stressed the importance of government maturity while focusing on digital transformation, enhancing capabilities and accelerating moving towards smart services, which enable members of society to get the best services without visiting service centres to maintain their health and wellbeing.
The summit included 4 discussion panels. The first session was ‘We Do What We Do: Lessons Learned from Pandemic Response.’ Bin Taliah, Hans Christiansen, Head of the Working Party on State-Owned Enterprises and Privatisation at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); and Matthew Nobles, Chief Compliance Officer, General Electric – Gas & Power, also took part. Ali Al Muwaijei, Vice President, Governance, Compliance and Agility, DEWA, moderated the panel.
The 2nd session was ‘Enterprise Agility Journey’ featured Trish Clancy, MD and Partner, Boston Consulting Group; Professor Raed Awamleh, Dean of the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government, and Rodrique Engering, Chief Customer and Operations Officer, and Kamer van Koophandel. Abeer AlAhmad, Manager of Agility at DEWA moderated the panel.
The 3rd session was ‘Balancing Risk, Compliance and Innovation: Operational Governance in Action During the Pandemic’ featured Dr Georg Klein, Head of Assurance and Chief Auditor at Siemens; Rima Hadid, Former COO and Board Secretary at Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding; and Hock-Chye Ong, Former Auditor General at the Asian Development Bank. It was moderated by Nick Nadal, Advisor on Governance, Compliance and Agility, at DEWA.
The 4th session was ‘Global Trends in Corporate Governance for State-Owned Enterprises’ and featured Fianna Jurdant, Programme Manager of the MENA-OECD Programme; Alex Berg, Corporate Governance Specialist, World Bank, and Sherif El Said, Partner at PwC.
