Dubai Customs won the Farouk El-Baz Award for Excellence in Organizational Sustainability for the Public Sector category for the second time. Dubai Customs was awarded with the El-Baz award for the first time in 2011. The award was launched by Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart University formerly known as Hamdan bin Mohammed e-University under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and President of Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU).
The 2014 HBMSU Annual Congress commenced on Monday March 3rd under the theme “Leading Transformation to Sustainable Excellence.” The award was developed for the purpose of encouraging Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in organizations and to drive excellence in different parts of the world across various operations emphasizing the importance of CSR at all levels, which positively impacts the sustained competitiveness keeping pace with the growing demands of the 21st century.
Mr. Khalil Saqer Bin Gharib, Director of Corporate Communication Department, Dubai Customs, received the award from Mr. Sami Al Qamzi, Director General of the Department of Finance at the Government of Dubai and a member of the HBMSU Board of Governors, during an opening ceremony organized by Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart University at Atlantis The Palm. The awarding ceremony took place as part of the university’s annual congress and was attended by a number of government officials, international guests and prominent scientists and researchers from the UAE and abroad.
Mr. Khalil expressed his contentment at winning this prestigious award for the second time which highlights Dubai Customs’ CSR efforts and reflects its commitment to assuring excellent standards in corporate sustainability, practice, and performance. He reiterated that CSR’s efforts illustrate the importance of corporate social responsibility to Dubai Customs and its commitment to serving the community.
“Dubai Customs continuously works hard to launch community initiatives stemming from four main pillars which are the environment, community, clients and employees. It gives me deep pleasure to say that we are proud of CSR’s achievements which lead us to earn this award for the second time, among other recent awards such as The Golden Peacock award, as well as being a four-time winner of the CSR Arabia Award-Public Sector Category, granted by Arabia CSR Network, and an equal time winner of the Ideas UK Platinum Accreditation for the organization’s efficient Suggestion System, in which we were the first government department to ever receive this accreditation worldwide,” said Mr. Khalil.
The El-Baz Award for Excellence in Organizational Sustainability is open to organizations such as SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises), public sector, services (large organizations), manufacturing (large organizations), non-for-profit private sector, and subsidiaries organizations. The assessment is based on two aspects of an organization; one is the “philosophy and practice” of the organization and the other one is the performance it delivers. The former examines if there is a suitable and congenial environment for driving sustainable organizational excellence, while the latter looks at the impact and performance of the organization on five dimensions which are evaluated by economic measures, internal capability measures, external stakeholder measures, competitiveness measures and CSR measures.
Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor of the HBMSU, commenced the Congress uttering his happiness and appreciation to all winners of the awards. Dr. Al Awar stressed the vital role the university plays in recognizing the importance of smart learning and excellence around the world.
Professor El-Baz conveyed the significance of the award through a video which was played during the Congress. Dr. El-Baz stated that this award is a commemoration of organizations efforts to keeping ahead and it highlights the paramount role CSR has in the community.
Hamdan bin Mohammed Smart University launched the Farouk El-Baz Award during its annual congress in 2011 in line with the directives of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in an effort to recognize the academic distinction of Professor Farouk El Baz and his significant contributions to science and research. Dr. El-Baz is Research Professor and Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, and he is an adjunct Professor of Geology at the Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Geological Society of America Foundation, Boulder, Colorado, a member of the Board of Directors of CRDF Global, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Washington, DC.