As part of its ongoing efforts to bolster joint coordination with other federal entities to drive digital transformation in the UAE, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently held a workshop to introduce smart screens at the ministry’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi. Several MoF officials, along with representatives from the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Energy and Industry, Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology, United Arab Emirates Space Agency and National Media Council attended the workshop.
The MoF team opened with a brief overview of the ministry’s proactive approach in keeping up with the digital revolution and AI adoption. This was followed by an introduction to the ministry’s Smart Reporting System, Tableau, its various features, as well as the smart reports screens. The latter will enable representatives of federal entities to quickly and easily follow their own report screens with their financial statements. The data is displayed live and is accompanied by illustrative charts that enable users to follow all relevant financial indicators with ease. At the end of the workshop, the ministry’s team addressed queries from the attendees.
H.E. Mariam Al Amiri, Under Secretary Financial Management Sector said that the ministry is keen to support digital transformation at federal level through smart initiatives such as AI applications. This is in line with the goals of the ‘UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (AI)’ 2031, which represents the next stage of smart governance.
H.E. said: “The Smart Reporting System is one of the ministry’s technological initiatives that processes, and analyses available data to provide reports and recommendations that support decision making.”
H.E. added: “The Ministry of Finance is at the forefront of adopting smart services and applications, and it continuously strives to communicate, cooperate and coordinate with various federal and local authorities and entities. MoF believes that cooperation is the main driver for us to achieve sustainable growth in a rapidly changing world. Proactively keeping up with the digital revolution, and encouraging government entities to employ advanced financial technologies is the best approach to reiterate the nation’s leading position across sectors.”
The Ministry of Finance team focused on taking a measured approach in its journey towards artificial intelligence in order to effectively use the latest technological developments. It started with automating repetitive manual processes, launching ChatBot technology on its website and consolidating financial and other data relevant to the federal government’s human resources in a central pool, which will be completed by the end of this year. Following this, the Machine Learning process will begin in 2020 to avoid missteps. Machine Learning provides the ability for automated systems to learn and improve upon their ability to perform certain tasks based on past experience. It also focuses on developing computer programs that can access and use this data.
Launched in 2016, Tableau is easy to use, and accessible through desktop, tablets, smart phones and provides cutting-edge solutions for workflow management. Since its adoption, the system has contributed greatly to elevating the quality of the ministry’s work such as Budget Execution Dashboard, Cash Balance Analysis Dashboard, Federal Services Dashboard and Service Desk Dashboards.