The Central Bank of the UAE held a strategy retreat which brought together senior Central Bank executives and technical staff, and attended by H.E the Governor and members of the higher management team. The meeting discussed and set-up the Central Bank's strategic direction within the UAE Federal Government's 4th Strategic Cycle – 2017-2021; the last strategic cycle towards UAE 2021 Vision, which envisages the UAE seeking to become one of the best countries in the world by 2021.

Under the supervision of the Strategy & Institutional Excellence Unit, a wide segment of Central Bank staff contributed to an extensive discussion of results of the work environment analysis. The analysis covered the economic, legal, political and technical factors which impact Central Bank's strategic direction. It is worth mentioning that the Central Bank has consulted with its strategic partners, including ministries and other related institutions, in addition to banks and other financial institutions such as finance companies, exchange houses and representative offices, with regard to the strategic direction.

The meeting also witnessed laying out of the final draft of the Central Bank's 2017-2021 strategic direction, including the Central Bank's vision, mission and strategic objectives, which are focused on continuous development of monetary policy and reserves management, maintaining strength of the banking sector, further strengthening Central Bank's international role, in addition to continuous development of the financial markets' infrastructure.

The Central Bank shall, over the coming months, continue coordination with the Prime Minister's Office, strategic partners and the community, in an attempt to formulate its 2017-2021 strategic plan in such way as to contribute to the realisation of the UAE's wise leadership vision of reaching advanced spots in the relevant competitiveness indicators, and reflect all expectations from the effective role of the Central Bank