The events of this week witnessed participation of a great numbers of employees in the brainstorming workshops with aim of motivating their creative efforts and boosting their contributions towards improving quality services to ensure benefits in turn, basically, within an initiative reflecting Dubai Customs in leading  role to maintaining platform of communication with its customers and recognizing their key responsibilities for improving image of Dubai Customs. Employees at workshops showed interaction and great interests in the idea and role of the workshops which practically help in the improvement of Dubai Customs service. 18 customers of distinguished suggestions were honoured, some of these suggestions contributed to developing Dubai Customs mobile services which gave great solution to the quality and quantity of services delivered to the customers.

The week comprised a number of workshops, brain storming sessions and awareness lectures given by experts and specialists in the field, on top of which is Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor of Hamdan Bin Mohammed e- University, who will give a lecture on “Axes Supporting Corporate Innovation”, and Abdul Qader Obaid Ali, Chairman of Ideas.Arabia Subgroup, who will make a speech on the “Roles of Partners and Clients in Corporate Innovation”. Moreover, Suggestion System officials at Dubai Customs will manage a series of brain storming sessions for their colleagues to hone their ideas and suggestions, which will be later submitted to the corporate suggestion system and only adequate, efficient ones will be implemented.

 

At the conclusion of the Ideas International Week, a ceremony to recognise 154 employees, who submitted suggestions that were implemented in Dubai Customs and collectively achieved financial proceeds estimated at about  AED 5 million during 2011, will be held under the patronage of HE Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Executive Chairman of the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, Director General of Dubai Customs. Their suggestions comprised ideas to develop customs work, boost inspection efficiency and leverage client satisfaction level, in addition to providing new services to employees to increase job satisfaction and meet their needs.

 

Mrs Feryal Tawakul, Executive Director of Community Affairs and Government Partnership Division, explained that the Department since last year, has initiated to organize the events of Ideas International Week to continuously be in parallel with the activities performance of Ideas UK company the  foremost professional body which encourages development of staff suggestion scheme programmes and Dubai Customs is one of its members.

Mrs Feryal highlighted that the suggestion program at Dubai Customs dates back some decades when the employees and customers suggestions used to submit directly to the ruler of Dubai who was at time designated as the Director of Customs. The suggestion in the 1980’s, used to be submitted to the Director on paper. later in 2004, the submission transformed to be processed online until recently updated to be known (Bader). It is worth to mention that Dubai Customs was one of the first Government Departments that implemented internal and external unified suggestion program which was inaugurated in mid-2011 by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed AL-Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council. This year, in January, the Department launched an initiative to organize a yearly forum for the government agencies which participate in the employee and client unified suggestion system to share latest updates of its development. The Department has also founded a General Secretariat for this forum at its main building – Port Rashid.