Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has marked a regional first in MENA by launching the Institutional Readiness and Sustainable Development Center in partnership with American Productivity and Quality Centre (APQC).
This agreement marks the official launch of APQC’s first-ever performance excellence hub in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), placing Dubai RTA at the forefront of global process management and institutional resilience.
The Centre’s main mandate is to strengthen Dubai RTA’s talent and operations by standardizing processes and building a self-sustaining workforce grounded in global best practices in process architecture and performance management.
While focusing on internal development, its success sets a new benchmark for organizational maturity across the MENA region. By applying global standards to create a unified framework for managing work, the Center drives organization-wide alignment through international benchmarking and best-practice research.
This validates performance, enhances internal capacity, and ensures Dubai RTA remains a world-class leader in process excellence. Serving as a foundational pillar, APQC anchors the Centre, which is designed as a growing ecosystem, with future strategic collaborations with other global institutes planned for subsequent phases.
As a regional first, the Center turns global best practices into a standardized, self-sustaining internal system. Unlike organizations that outsource excellence, RTA builds it as a permanent asset, making the ‘RTA Way’ a globally validated standard owned and run entirely by its talent.
Moaza Saeed Al Marri CEO – Executive Affairs Dubai RTA
“The establishment of this Center is a strategic investment in RTA’s long-term resilience and our national talent. By hosting APQC as our founding member, we are providing our teams with a world-class ‘Unified Source of Truth’ for our operations that is globally recognized and validated. This Centre is built to evolve, eventually housing a full ecosystem of global standards that will ensure RTA remains the most agile and sustainable transport authority in the world.”
Echoing this sentiment, Cathy Hill, Chief Development Officer of APQC, remarked that, “We are honored to join RTA as the founding member of this landmark Centre. RTA had consistently demonstrated a commitment to world-class standards, and by establishing this first-of-its-kind internal excellence hub in the region, they are creating a powerful model for how organizations can work smarter and faster. This collaboration represents a vital step in our shared mission to drive productivity and institutional readiness through proven, validated frameworks.”
