The number of ideas put forward by DC staff to Mohammed bin Rashid Smart Council, since its launch in October 2015 until the end of June 2016, reached about 1,527 new ideas, of which 687 were approved, representing about 45% of the overall submitted ideas. Such reasonable percentage was reached as a result of the enthusiasm shown by DC staff and their keenness to participate in the process of continuous development across this smart platform of new ideas and innovations, backed by constant encouragement from DC leadership team.
The DC leadership is keen to support the participation of employees to submit their ideas to Mohammed bin Rashid Smart Council as Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs, personally honours all employees who present innovative new ideas, which the Council adopts later on.
Since His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched the Smart Council, DC staff has been contesting to provide new development ideas to the Council to achieve the goals set by his Highness for this initiative. These objectives are represented in stimulating creativity and innovation in the community through the provision of an integrated smart platform to receive new development ideas in Dubai.
All employees who present new ideas that are adopted by the Council are honoured internally by the DC Director to urge all employees in the department to develop ideas and stimulate their spirit of creativity and innovation.
Furthermore, the DC Suggestions Section follows up, through a team of ambassadors for creativity from all departments, divisions and customs centres, the interaction of employees with the ideas received from Mohammed bin Rashid Smart Council and the Unified Suggestion System of the Government of Dubai.
Besides, those ambassadors of creativity are keen to develop ideas provided by the staff before they are presented to managers to get approvals for them. The small and medium ideas are applied by the concerned departments while large innovative ideas are transferred to the DC competent work teams to conduct the required studies and determine the executive steps for turning such ideas into initiatives and projects.
On their part, the employees, who presented new ideas that have been adopted by the Smart Council of Mohammed bin Rashid, have asserted that the initiative stimulated their creativity and innovation to improve the overall performance in the Emirate of Dubai.
In this regard, Ibtisam Mohammed Saleh, an employee of the Coastal Customs Centers Management, said, “The Mohammed bin Rashid Smart Council serves as a smart and efficient platform that ensures the flow of innovative ideas, that can be turned into procedures or innovations.”
Another employee, Najla Darwish, from the DXB Free Zone and Dubai Silicon Oasis Customs Centre, said, "We get constant encouragement at Dubai Customs to bring forth new ideas to Mohammed bin Rashid Smart Council, which motivates us to persevere on the development of ideas and present them to the Council to contribute to the development of the Emirate of Dubai through the development of services and facilities provided to customers in support of trade and economic growth."