There is only one effective strategy to improve the efficiency of government and BRING EFFICIENCY TO THE STATE BUREAUCRACY that is of course beyond shrinking the GDP contribution of the state to the minimum (when measured as a percentage of the total GDP).
IT IS BY PUTTING THE BUREAUCRACY IN COMPETITION WITH ITSELF. Every other solution is an exercise of bureaucratic play and in the best of times is only of use if applied in a bureaucracy that is already in a sufficiently competitive environment. Issues like the right man for the right job, quality of leadership, efficiency, management, strategic planning etc. are all useless in a large bureaucracy that has no directly competing bureaucracies. "Like no amount of strategic thinking, planning or training will make a Monopoly as efficient as a NON MONOPOLY."
THE BUREAUCRACY is always more efficient when "THE STATE owns responsibility for the smallest percentage of economic output" and "The BUREAUCRACY has the highest level of competition within the same Eco- system"
Such as different state bureaucracies competing against each other, in the case of the United States of America or the different Emirate Bureaucracies, (as in The United Arab Emirates), competing against each other under a loose federation. Where the weaker influence of The Central Government and the stronger influence of the competing local bureaucracies leads to higher efficiency of the State Bureaucracy and of THE TOTAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM.
Hence the key reason for the (Higher Than Its Peer's) efficiency of the UAE economy is it's autonomous and aggressively competing five state regions with very strong local power and the very light hand of the central government. In this capacity I know of no other nation with this degree of decentralization of power to autonomous regions or states, the only close new emerging example is the EU, however the UAE has been at it longer than Europe and has a more capable Central Government when it comes to Federal Finance, Currency, Foreign Policy, Defense etc.. and yet the ease and transparency of operating as one a NATION.
It is this single fact that was never intended as an economic strategy but came as a result of political lobbying to produce the UAE as a country by unifying seven independent Sheikdoms that were only willing to give up so much in exchange for a larger unified state. A design that was originally seen as a weakness however was the best that could be achieved at the time, turned out to be the UAE's best unintended economic master plan.
A plan that created seven municipalities with so much power to the extent that each has a counsel very similar to a cabinet competing with each other for business, tourism, logistics, residency etc.. with at least FOUR Competing seaports, THREE Competing Airports, THREE Competing Stock Exchanges, Multiple Competing Free Zones, Competing Health and Education Systems, Policy services, Four Competing National Airlines etc.
It is this before anything else, before, leadership, talent, Democracy, State Planning etc. that is responsible for the economic performance of the UAE. It's also fair to say that politicians and bureaucrats don't like this design and don't like competition if they have the choice, but they will adapt to it if they have to. Hence nations will not get this design unless a single visionary leader demands it or more likely, is forced by circumstances. It's like private businesses don't like competition and will try to seek monopoly or dominance through patents, mergers & acquisitions, size of capital required or licensing.
Conclusion:
Nations that will eventually succeed to regional leadership and dominance economically are those that have the smallest bureaucracy (as measured by the % of total GDP it is responsible for) and the bureaucracy that has the highest intensity of competition within the same "Eco System", Nation or Economic Zone etc., (when measured in comparison to the intensity of the internal competition of its directly competing bureaucracies). Every other action or asset or skill is secondary and negligible.