With the end of the year around the corner, Dubai Customs celebrated 32 disruptive innovations developed throughout 2020. This has raised the number of innovations developed by the government department between 2010 and 2020 to 237. Dubai Customs received 14 global awards for outstanding achievement in innovation in 2020 to raise the total number of recognitions and awards to 124. 

“Prioritizing innovation today is essential to unlocking post crisis prosperity and growth,” said Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director General of Dubai Customs. “Dubai Customs has worked diligently to turn innovation into a daily practice following the wise vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. We are following certain strategies to keep up the good work and maintain our leading position around the world. We focus on AI applications in the coming phase. New uses and applications of artificial intelligence (AI) are developed every day, bringing us closer to an unparalleled future. A future that we could have never imagined. This will put us closer to fulfil the requirements of the UAE Centennial 2071 and other ambitious plans and projects.

Hussain Al Fardan, Dubai Customs’ Innovation Center senior manager said:

“Dubai Customs crowned its outstanding performance with 7 awards from Ideas America to raise the total number of 2020’s accolades to 14. The awards included the first place (Gold Award) in Idea of the Year (Team Category) for the leading project: The Cross Border e-Commerce. This project is the first of its kind in the region, and it utilizes block chain technology to integrate and automate operations between Customs, Free Zones, logistics, and courier companies.”

The Innovation Center has organized a series of brainstorming sessions for different teams to come up with disruptive ideas. These sessions have generated 72% of the total number of ideas, which played a significant role in facilitating customs operations and facing different challenges including the Covid-19 challenge.