DCS international standing enhanced by Financial Times report on its role in the development of top officials

The article, Saïd Offers 'Transformational' Programme, explores the sound methodology followed by DCS in professionally upgrading local cadres to meet the burgeoning development needs of the Emirates of Abu Dhabi. The DCS is aspiring to contribute to modernization through enhancing governmental performance, with a specific vision in mind: to be one of the best five governments in the world, in terms of efficiency and excellence.

Ali Rashed Al Ketbi, Undersecretary, told the Financial Times that the DCS is very much guided by the vision of H.H Sheikh Khalifa and H.H Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, as part of the grand project of His Highness to transform Abu Dhabi and bolster its administrative and economic prowess.

He went on to say:

"At the DCS, we drew up our civil service training and development policies with a view to establishing a strong foundation of qualified cadres and potential leaders who would shoulder the responsibility of modernization and socio-economic progress."

The report in the Financial Times took the form of an interview with Ali Al Ketbi in which he explained that over 500 senior civil servants from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi have undergone intensive leadership training as part of the DCS National Programme for Leadership Development.

They will be at the vanguard of Abu Dhabi Government's ongoing march towards its goal: to be one of the best five administrations world-wide by 2012.

Al Ketbi said that the Career Development Program was launched last January, starting with sixteen top officials who attended a five-day course at Oxford.

By the second half of this year, eleven further training programs will be organized in Abu Dhabi.

The Financial Times reported that the Saïd Business School at Oxford University is responsible for devising courses and plans in line with the requirements of the development policy agenda of the Emirates of Abu Dhabi.

Al Ketbi maintained that upgrading is open-ended, ambitious and flexible enough to perpetually cope with development objectives and labour market needs.

"The development train has started its journey and it would not stop before all our cadres are qualified enough to turn the vision of our Government into reality" Al-Ketbi said.

Al Ketbi remarked that the increased international media interest on the DCS's plans for leadership training is a reflection of the strategy and goals set down by the Emirate's extraordinary leadership.