Sharjah 24 – WAM: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, chaired the UAE Cabinet meeting at Al Zorah Natural Reserve in Ajman, in the presence of Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Finance; and Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said, "I chaired the cabinet meeting. We approved the establishment of an integrated national platform that highlight opportunities for investors in various sectors, such as financial technology, tourism, manufacturing, and renewable energy. The platform, will be supervised by the Ministry of Economy.”
His Highness added: “Also, we approved the national building regulations and standards, which includes sustainability standards for roads, buildings, housing, etc... The goal is to decrease the consumption of natural resources and reduce the carbon footprint of the UAE.”
Foreign Investor Platform
The UAE Cabinet meeting approved the foreign investor compass project, which represents one of the transformative projects of the Ministry of Economy, and constitutes a qualitative leap in promoting the investment environment in the UAE, and highlighting the country's capabilities in the targeted sectors.
The new project includes an electronic platform, guides and promotional tools that highlights various opportunities for foreign investor’s in the sectors of financial technology, agricultural technology, health care, education, communications and information technology, media and entertainment, e-commerce, tourism, space, logistics, manufacturing, medical tourism, renewable energy, creative industries, games and smart cities.
National building regulations and standards
Also, the Cabinet meeting approved the National Building Regulations and Standards, which includes sustainability guides for buildings, roads, housing, and a National Guide for Building Sustainability in operation and maintenance. The National Building Regulations and Standards will ensure reducing the use of materials and natural resources by 15 percent, reducing the carbon footprint by 5 percent, reducing energy in roads by 45 percent, reducing energy in buildings and housing by 25 percent, reducing water consumption by 16 percent, in addition to supporting the green economy, and the welfare and comfort of the people of the UAE.
Enhancing a healthy lifestyle
The meeting approved the national policy to promote healthy lifestyles in the country. It aims to improve the quality of healthy life for individuals and society, create healthy environments that promote and protect the rights of all people of all ages, and encourage multi-sectoral partnerships to ensure effective preventive interventions for problems and diseases related to unhealthy lifestyle. The policy aims at consolidating the concept of community partnership by increasing community members' awareness of healthy behaviours.
Smart Health Initiative
The Cabinet meeting also approved the Smart Health Initiative which aims at developing health services in the country through partnership and cooperation between various governmental health entities and private sector institutions.
This initiative will work on developing and updating the rules governing the use of modern methods and technologies to provide advanced digital health services, and enhance the efficiency of health devices, as well as the accuracy of diagnosis, prescription and dispense medical products.
The initiative will encourage telemedicine interventions, remote medical follow-up and monitoring, in order to provide 100 percent remote health services.
The Cabinet also approved the launch of a campaign that aims at cleaning the tourist landmarks and destinations in the UAE, in line with the International Volunteer Day.
The campaign comes in cooperation between the Ministry of Community Development and the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.
The campaign which start by 5th December for 10 consecutive days and will continue until the 15th of it, will witness the participation of officials, ministers and work teams of federal and local authorities in cleaning up tourist destinations in the country, in cooperation with the Emirates Environmental Group.
The initiative target is to enhance the role of federal government employees in supporting the volunteer work process, spreading the culture of volunteering in society, supporting the environment, and enhancing UAE’s efforts to host the COP28.
Housing grants
The Cabinet meeting reviewed a detailed study on the monthly income ceiling for requests for housing assistance and grants within the Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme.
Also, the UAE Cabinet reviewed the suggested requirements to support citizens with limited income who do not meet the conditions of loans in housing grants.
Also, the meeting approved a number of agreements with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Kingdom of Tonga, in addition to approving the UAE’s accession to the Beijing Convention on the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Related to International Civil Aviation for the year 2010.