The Journey included a special focus on the country’s social development foundations, traditional and digital economy, and endeavours to build human capacity to achieve self-sufficiency, QLC has said in a statement.
Notably, as a core component of their travel mandate, the participants met with Qatar’s ambassador to Singapore, Abdullah bin Ibrahim al-Hamar. During their exchange, the participants apprised the ambassador of their learning experience and discussed methods of implementing successes of Singapore in relatable instances to achieve the development goals of Qatar.
The envoy honoured the participants with certifications of completion on the last day of the Learning Journey.
Describing the importance of the Learning Journeys, which are a staple curricular element of QLC’s National Leadership Programmes, Sheikh Dr Abdulla bin Ali al-Thani, board member and managing director of QLC, noted: “These international exchanges are integral to the centre’s contribution to developing Qatari human capital.
“Singapore and Qatar have a common vision of fostering effective and self-sufficient governance practices. We hope this Learning Journey would help the Centre’s Government Leaders in their journey towards further progress and prosperity.”
The annual Learning Journeys enable participants of each programme to travel to at least one key market around the world with the mandate of learning from the experience of other nations, exchanging in constructive discourse with their new peers, and bringing that knowledge back in the service of Qatar.
During the five-day Learning Journey to Singapore – which came in collaboration with the Civil Service College Singapore, one of QLC’s strategic leadership education partners – Government Leaders participated in several workshops and lectures aimed at promoting knowledge exchange.
Tina Tan, director of Civil Service College International, welcomed participants at the opening session of the Journey. Then, the participants engaged in discussions on the Fourth Industrial Revolution – a term adopted by the World Economic Forum to describe the ongoing period of industrialisation that increasingly sees technology becoming embedded within societies – and the impact it has had on Singapore’s leaders and institutions.
Similarly, during a tour to National University of Singapore Enterprise and another tour to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, the participants learned about economic development and governance policies in addition to Singapore’s entrepreneurial experiences and efforts to promote industry.
In addition to achieving economic market insights, the participants had the opportunity to closely interact with insiders from a wide range of government and public sector institutions. For instance, participants were briefed on Singapore’s plans regarding the transportation sector and healthcare policies as well as engaged in an exclusive discussion on Singapore’s military, economic and social defence during a meeting with the deputy director of the National Central Education Office of the Ministry of Defence, Singapore.
The Learning Journey to Singapore concludes QLC’s annual Learning Journeys for the three National Leadership Programmes 2018-2019. QLC’s Executive Leaders have concluded a Learning Journey to the US and Sweden, while Rising Leaders have returned recently from a Learning Journey to Japan.
