Sharjah Economic Development Department “SEDD” organized number of virtual meetings with local and federal departments and authorities in the public and private sectors. This comes in implementation of the benchmarking plan, through which the Department aims to exchange experiences and knowledge and view the best practices in this field.

Thus, SEDD organized more than 33 virtual meetings with local and federal entities and bodies in the public and private sectors during 2021, in addition to regional bodies from outside the country. This falls within its benchmarking plan that aims at exchanging experiences and knowledge and reviewing best practices in this field. It should be noted that “Benchmarking” is comparison with distinguished institutions in specific or similar fields to identify best practices at the local, regional or international level in the same scope of work or outside it in order to benefit from it and improve performance indicators as well as develop strategic projects.

Commenting on that, HE Sultan Abdullah bin Hadda Al Suwaidi, SEDD Chairman, emphasized that these meetings play a role in strengthening the various cooperation relations and accelerating the development processes, as working on the development of the emirate’s economy is one of its main tasks. They also contribute at attaining SEDD’s vision of leadership in comprehensive development to achieve a diversified, competitive, and innovative knowledge-based economy. This falls within its strategic plan calling for contributing to the planning and leadership of comprehensive economic development in the emirate according to the highest standards. Also, it supports the implementation of the rational leadership’s approach to excellence and creativity in all fields and services.

In addition, HE stressed that meetings are crucial for consolidating cooperation and exchanging visions between various parties. He also stressed that the exchange of visits comes within SEDD’s concerns to strengthen various relations and accelerate development processes and the system of mutual work to find outputs that serve all parties thus improving the levels of service provided to investors. HE clarified that this contributes to the country's orientation towards building a strong and solid economy characterized by knowledge and sustainability and enhances the country's competitiveness at the global level.

From her part, Hanadi Al Muhairi, Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Department at SEDD, said that these meetings are important to implement the benchmarking plan that aims to exchange experiences and knowledge and highlight the best practices of various entities. This enhances SEDD’s role in raising the competitiveness of the Emirate in various sectors, and contributing to strengthening Sharjah’s position in the local and global competitiveness reports. She indicated that SEDD works to develop performance and services according to the highest standards, thus applying the wise leadership approach to excellence and creativity in all fields and services. In addition, she stressed that virtual meetings enhance various cooperation relations.

Furthermore, she clarified that SEDD is preparing a detailed report that explain the benefits from meetings and visits according to benchmarking plan and how to implement it in a manner consistent with the Department. Likely, she pointed out that results are monitored, measured, and compared with the previously set goals in order to develop the services to reach best practices.

Moreover, Al Muhairi explained that employee satisfaction rate to benchmarking reached 95%, which encourages the Department to continuously motivate the employees to improve performance and excellence. She added that SEDD organized more than 33 virtual meetings during 2021, which in turn contributed to reaching more than 90 outputs of standard comparisons distributed between (knowledge acquisition - improvement - and creation).