MoF Organises Workshop On Collecting UAE Government Finance Statistics

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 08th Apr, 2021) The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has announced it recently organised a virtual workshop on collecting government finance statistics nationally.

Representatives from the UAE Departments of Finance attended the workshop and discussed the latest developments and requirements needed to collect financial data across the UAE, in addition to the common technical issues faced.

Younis Haji Al Khoori, Undersecretary of Ministry of Finance, praised the UAE Departments of Finance’s efforts to achieve the country’s strategic goals and elevate the country’s position on global competitiveness indices in the financial and economic fields.

Al Khoori said, "Through the Government Financial Policy Coordination Council, the Ministry of Finance will continue working to strengthen cooperation and coordination with the Departments of Finance to devise sound solutions and mitigate the challenges that may deter the provision of financial and statistical data at the UAE level in an easy and accurate manner."

The workshop agenda included a review of the annual data for the year of 2020; the quarterly data for the year of 2021; job classification data; the national guide for research and development expenditure in the government sector and the government entities' updates for the year of 2021.

It also included the draft balance sheet; the draft Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS); the exchange of information with the UAE Departments of Finance; the transition to accrual accounting; and the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on the government's financial performance in 2020 (revenue and expenditures).

At the end of the workshop, attendees recommended strengthening cooperation between the various relevant entities to meet the requirements of the UAE’s global competitiveness indices. That, in addition to the commitment to provide various financial reporting requirements according to the agreed standards, and providing practical proposals and views that contribute to the development of the Emirates Gate system for government financial statistics reports. This is in order to facilitate the flow of data and prepare the reports on time.

The workshop reiterated the necessity of providing quarterly and annual data from all entities on time, to prepare financial data and reports at the UAE level, and publish them through various publishing channels, especially those related to the National Summary Data Page (NSDP).