Lebanese Ministers Study UAE's Government Modernization Blueprint

Lebanon’s two ministers arrived in Dubai this week with a specific agenda: to study how the UAE has rebuilt its government from the inside out, and to bring those lessons home.

Amer Bsat, Lebanon’s Minister of Economy and Trade, and Kamal Shehadeh, Minister of State for Technology and Artificial Intelligence and Minister of the Displaced, led the delegation. The Government Knowledge Exchange Office at the UAE’s Ministry of Cabinet Affairs organized the visit.

Mohammed Al Gergawi, the UAE’s Minister of Cabinet Affairs, hosted the Lebanese officials and walked them through a range of government modernization initiatives. These included the UAE’s approaches to artificial intelligence deployment, strategic planning frameworks, what the government calls “zero bureaucracy” systems, digital service delivery, institutional foresight, and organizational excellence programs. The sessions gave the Lebanese team concrete examples of how the UAE has restructured its administrative processes.

“Exchanging successful experiences shortens development distances and contributes to building more efficient, flexible and future-ready governments capable of turning challenges and changes into opportunities,” Al Gergawi said during the visit.

Short words, but a pointed message for a country working through significant institutional challenges.

The Dubai visit did not happen in isolation. Just days earlier, a group of more than 80 UAE officials and business leaders had traveled to Beirut, led by Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, the UAE’s Minister of Foreign Trade. That delegation signed multiple agreements, including one establishing a UAE-Lebanon Business Council. During meetings with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, officials discussed what they described as “tangible commercial opportunities” available to both nations.

Al Gergawi framed the knowledge exchange as a natural extension of those bilateral ties, expressing optimism that the visit would open new avenues for practical cooperation aligned with Lebanon’s own modernization priorities. He emphasized that the UAE’s approach to sharing expertise reflects directives from the country’s leadership, which views inter-governmental collaboration as a catalyst for accelerated development.

The exchange falls under the UAE’s Government Knowledge Exchange Programme, established in 2018 to distribute best practices and technical expertise to friendly and allied nations. Since its launch, the program has built partnerships with dozens of countries across government modernization, strategic planning, service development, and capacity building. It represents a deliberate effort by the UAE to position itself as a source of administrative innovation that other nations can draw on as they undertake their own reforms.

What the timing signals is worth watching. Both countries appear to be pushing practical cooperation well beyond traditional diplomatic channels. Lebanon’s focus on artificial intelligence integration and government modernization reflects real institutional needs on the ground. The UAE’s readiness to open its systems to visiting officials, rather than offering conventional aid, points to a regional engagement strategy built on technical and administrative expertise. Whether that exchange translates into reforms that ordinary Lebanese people eventually feel in their daily interactions with government remains the open question.