Vice President Faisal Naseem called on the international community on Tuesday to better use the available opportunities and resources to achieve the future we want for our citizens. Addressing the "Future of Work" forum held as part of the World Government Summit 2023, the Vice President stated that world leaders need to facilitate this by enhancing and transforming governance systems to match the "future of work" and the needs of our time. The World Government Summit is held from February 13-15, 2023, at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In his address, the Vice President discussed various issues currently facing the globe and outlined the need for swift action and concerted efforts to develop novel solutions that would ensure a better future. He noted that governments in today's highly globalised world are confronted with increasingly complex and cross-cutting issues, such as economic volatility, unfavourable demographic trends, and climate change. He stressed that good governance is one of the significant challenges that both developing and developed countries face.
The Vice President emphasised that the administration of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih considers democratic governance, institutional reform, and modernisation of the public sector as the key pillars of development and growth. He added that the development of human and social capital, attaining sustainable development, providing suitable social housing, modernising transportation infrastructure, and improving regional connections are all essential building blocks for realising this vision.
This year, the World Government Summit is themed "Shaping Future Governments." The Vice President called it "timely" and said it resonated with the sentiments of a world transformed by a global pandemic. He added that the pandemic compelled governments to reorient government models and introduce creative policies and technologies through accelerating government service innovation to overcome the challenges.
Stating that the pandemic had a significant impact on the realisation of virtual societies' importance and the healthcare system's transformation, the Vice President noted that remote working had become more normalised to a greater extent with the increased adaptation of the remote work model. He also spoke about how, with the combination of nature, technology, and infrastructure, the Maldives is becoming a hub for digital nomads and remote workers.
Shedding light on President Solih's digitalisation policy, the Vice President announced that the Maldives would launch One-Gov services in March 2023, complementing the existing "GOV.MV" platform, which facilitates more accessible digital communication between government agencies and the public. He stated that the mission of this digital development agenda is to lay the foundations for expedited digital development and that at the heart of this plan is the introduction of digital identity, which would act as a building block of a digital society.
The Vice President also spoke about the administration's efforts to build a better "future of work" with a robust human resource development agenda, ensuring the minimum wage, establishing the SME Bank in support of small and medium-sized enterprises, and establishing a reliable and secure transportation system with the Raajje Transport Link (RTL) transportation system.
The Vice President emphasised that for the Maldives, priority needs to be placed on innovative green technologies to enhance trade capacity. He also spoke about strengthening technological capabilities to address climate change by increasing renewable energy sources, reducing disaster risk, and promoting the blue economy.