Dubai – 07, July 2021:  Dubai Customs introduced the 1st Innovation League earlier this year to motivate employees and encourage them to compete and come up with creative ideas that can improve customs procedures and services. The tournament is aimed to promote competition among different customs centers and departments, thus fostering a culture of innovation and creativity within the organization. 

Throughout 2021 working teams would compete with each other to find smart and innovative solutions to the challenges faced by Dubai Customs. At the end of the year three winning teams will be announced following jury evaluations.   

 “The winners will be honored and recognized by H.E. Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director General of Dubai Customs,” said Hussain Al Fardan, Dubai Customs’ Innovation Center senior manager, adding that the Innovation League 2021 has set objectives to bring happiness to all stakeholders, including customers, partners, suppliers, and the community, to come up with effective solutions and unique innovations serving the needs of both local and international customs work, as well as to promote teamwork and help broaden the pool of talent and innovators in the workplace.  

“Through this Innovation League Dubai Customs wants to foster the innovation culture by engaging all internal and external stakeholders in generating new ideas, thereby making innovation a daily practice and a way of life in Dubai Customs. The tournament’s successful ideas would be utilized for participation in national and international competitions to gain more global outreach,” Al Fardan further noted.   

The first and second phases of the 1st Innovation League 2021 saw the organization of 24 preparatory workshops to raise awareness and finalize formation of innovation teams that will tackle specific challenges during the tournament in dedicated innovation labs.

Despite the Covid-19 situation, Dubai Customs received 5,404 ideas last year, which takes the total number of innovative ideas generated by employees since the launch of the e-suggest system to more than 42,000 until the end of 2020. Dubai Customs staff developed 32 disruptive innovations last year, raising the number of innovations developed between 2010 and 2020 to 237. As a result, Dubai Customs had received over 127 local and global awards of excellence by the end of 2020.