UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said that today, the achievements of forty-eight years are diagnosed in front of us, we remember in all honor and gratitude our father and the symbol of our union and the founder of our renaissance Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and a companion his path Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum and the founding fathers, may God bless them all.
He added, in a speech delivered through the shield of the homeland on the occasion of the 48th National Day of the State, that with their memory, they bring their vision that led to the birth of our country, and their ambition, which set the rules of our strong Emirati model with his sons and daughters, and immune to his armed forces and security services, and the speaker of sustainable development, and embody our principles and values , The unity of our house, and the depth of belonging and loyalty of our people and cohesion with his leadership and rally around their visions, policies and plans of action.
The following is the text of His Highness' speech.
In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Merciful, my fellow citizens, I congratulate you by our 48th National Day.
My congratulations go to my brother His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, my brother His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and my brothers, members of the Supreme Council of the Union and the rulers of the UAE.
Today, the achievements of forty-eight years are diagnosed in front of us, we remember in all esteem and gratitude our father, the symbol of our union, the founder of our renaissance, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, a companion trained by Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum and the founding fathers. With their memory, they attend their vision that led to the birth of our state, and their ambition, which laid the foundations of our strong Emirati model with its sons and daughters, its immune to its armed forces and security services, and the speaker of sustainable development, embodying our principles and values, the unity of our house, the depth of loyalty and loyalty of our people, and the cohesion of its vision, policies and action plans.
We have moved our Emirati model from case to case, and from age to age, and established our feet on the runways of progress and progress, and opened to our aspirations broadest prospects, and for future generations welcome the opportunities.
As the souls of Emiratis and Emiratis are filled with pride and satisfaction with the achievements and successes of our model, I am sure that these souls are full of a sense of responsibility for the maintenance, development and multiplication of achievements. It is the people of that, the spirit of the Union that applies in us canceled the impossible word from our dictionary, and by turning us to achieve achievements to a way of life, and dedicated the progress of our plans and actions.
Citizens, you know that we live in an age of fast-paced changes and new developments that are very influential in all walks of life. This means that our achievements in the sectors of infrastructure and government services, economy, education, health and culture, are subject to obsolescence if we do not keep up with the changes and accommodate the developments so we have no place to relax or to rest or postpone the work of today to tomorrow. As achievements are inherently impetus, it is our duty to invest this momentum to achieve new qualitative achievements that will ensure our country and people continue to advance in the paths of development, glory and prosperity.
We will remain in a positive engagement with the future, and the occasion we celebrate today is full of lessons and lessons.Our union was the embodiment of our determination to make our future in our own hands; our Constitution was a framework for a new present, and a window on a bright future in which the sustainable and inclusive development of human and physical construction is realized. The unification of our armed forces was an affirmation of our determination to protect our future with the hands of our children.
Our founding fathers instilled the future in our minds and culture and attended in all our strategic plans and projects.This presence is one of the secrets of the success of our Emirati model, enabling us to achieve quantitative and qualitative accumulation in all fields of development, and added to our work programs to monitor the emerging global trends in the economy and technology, which ensured We have the ability to keep abreast of changes, and ensure that our human resources, our economy and our institutions are able to adapt to their requirements.
Thus, when the promises of the Fourth Industrial Revolution prolonged, we initiated a positive engagement with it, and we became involved in its world and participated in its movement. This would not have been possible had we not kept pace with the early information and communications revolution, built its digital infrastructure, harnessed its applications to improve government performance, and pushed the private sector to employ it to accelerate its transition to the knowledge economy.
Early on, too, we realized the importance of space science and industry, and I said at the time that no one in space would have a place on Earth. We have embodied this awareness in building institutions and centers and the development of relevant legislation, and the qualification and preparation of national cadres specialized, we moved from celebrating our guests astronauts foreigners to celebrate our children astronauts UAE. From buying ready-made satellites, to designing and manufacturing them with the minds and hands of our young men and women who are now putting the finishing touches to the probe of hope that will be launched next year to Mars.
There is no room here to limit the visibility of the future to our projects. I am content with an additional model abounding in the energy sector, which has become a major and effective partner in shaping its future in the world, through our initiatives in the field of clean energy, as in Masdar City, one of the most sustainable cities in the world. The largest solar energy of its kind in one location, the Barakah nuclear power plant, which will find the emission of twenty-one million tons of carbon dioxide annually as well as add electricity to our country.
Fellow citizens, my talk with you about the future is in fact a talk about the present.The distance between the two times is almost fading, and I sometimes feel that the three dimensions of time: the past, the present and the future tend to become two dimensions;
Today, as we take the occasion of our founding anniversary to stand together and review ourselves and our performance, one of the most important measures of performance is the relevance of our plans and projects to the future. The closer the connection, the greater the achievement and the success is noticeable, and the examples in our reality are many. Whenever there is no link or weakness, achievement is dim and success is timid. I am reassured in our national day, more than ever before, of the depth and regularity of our country's and society's connection with the future. The presence of our country and our youth and young women is active and active in the most important future sectors affecting the components of our own power. Our strategies have produced a work system in which the roles of institutions and legislation are integrated, from which plans, programs, projects and initiatives are launched, and in the context of which we strengthen our scientific infrastructure, and deepen with quality additions, the latest being the Industrial Intelligence Laboratories and Mohammed Bin Zayed University for Industrial Intelligence.
In the past federal year, we have made important achievements in all fields of development, especially in human development. Our society enjoys a high quality of life that provides security and stability. Our human resources fill the eye in all vital locations and areas of our government, our departments, our armed forces, our security and judicial systems, the aerospace, atomic, clean energy, aviation and advanced industries sectors.
The formation of our human knowledge, scientific and cultural, and the empowerment of tools of research and development, creativity and innovation will continue to be the concern of our government and our top priority.This is what we actively seek our schools and universities, and adopted by training centers, youth centers and entrepreneurship initiatives.
On the economic front, we have made progress in the size and quality of our economic activities thanks to the continuous development of our legislation and the enhancement of transparency, governance and partnership with the private sector. Despite the slowdown in the global economy and global trade, our economy has continued to grow, non-oil trade has grown, and e-commerce is growing at an average of 23 percent annually as a result of government adoption of service payments and e-commerce. Our economy has taken a leading position in the Global Competitiveness Report 2019, published by the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, ranking fourth ahead of seventh. This prestigious position requires us to redouble our efforts to advance further to the first rank, and to achieve progress in other development indicators in which our country occupies the first positions in several axes, and advanced positions in other axes that do not satisfy us or meet our aspirations.
In the field of political empowerment, we conducted the elections of the members of the Federal National Council for a new legislative session with a wide electoral base of 337,738 voters, which is one and five times the number of the first electoral base in 2006, in a new confirmation of the merit of the gradual approach in which we are consciously and consciously building our model. The elections witnessed creative social interaction and fair competition between the candidates. The National Council was convened with a new composition and composition which guarantees women representation of at least 50%.
Enhancing the political participation of women provides a qualitative addition to our efforts to empower women to achieve gender balance, especially as Emirati women have shown high efficiency in all the responsibilities they have assumed, whether as minister, general manager or member of the judicial and diplomatic corps. Our efforts to achieve gender balance are always accompanied by efforts to enable women to fulfill their family obligations and duties. Women are the bulb of the house, the mother of the family, and their role in the upbringing and care of their children is not preceded by another. The mothers of our martyrs presented a role model not only in the good upbringing and upbringing of their children, but also in the patience of the injured and endure the pain of loss, and recognition of God's judgment and destiny.
As the year of tolerance lapses by the end of this month, tolerance will continue to be present in our society and our value system; it is an integral part of our faith, with which our faith is complete, and so our ancestors grew up and created us. We will continue our role in promoting human brotherhood among religions, races and cultures, and will devote our nation to a global platform for tolerance, coexistence, human dialogue, mutual respect and acceptance of the other.
Yes, we will devote our country to a platform of tolerance, as it has dedicated a title to the good that we have allocated in 2017. It has passed that year, but the welfare of the UAE and its aid and tenders have not expired. It was present before and continued after 2017, maintaining its position as the world's largest aid donor as a proportion of national income of 1.3%, almost double the global 0.7% target set by the United Nations to measure donor efforts.
Citizens, your country has become an inspiring model for the Arab world and an active player in efforts to improve the quality of life of many less fortunate countries. It has set an example for many countries in the world seeking development and progress. We will continue our Arab initiatives and develop them and respond to the great interaction with them, and will spare no effort in the service of our nation and uphold, and will not delay the transfer of our expertise to every brother and friend request.
When Arab youth choose the UAE year after year as a preferred place to work and live, we do not lose pride, but feel more responsible, and become more determined and determined to develop our country and strengthen its international status and the respect and appreciation of its people.
When the UAE passport becomes the most powerful in the world, our happiness with this achievement is coupled with the keenness of all the sons and daughters of the UAE in their solution and travel to confirm our worthiness, and our merit, by adhering to the inherent of our customs and traditions, and in our behavior and dealings with others.
When our country hosts Expo 2020 next year, we will take advantage of the show to show the best potential in our country, the best qualities in our people, the goodness and usefulness and the ability to organize, and to stimulate the minds to continue and create the future.
Dear citizens, on this national day, we pay a special greeting to the officers and soldiers of our armed forces and security services and share their feelings of the loss of their fellow martyrs, and we call on them with the Almighty to keep our brothers and sons on the battlefield and to reconcile them and return them safely Ghanem to their homeland and their families.
The greeting continues to the brother of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his wise leadership and his achievements described and his efforts in strengthening the capabilities of our armed forces to remain a bulwark of our country, and a strong umbrella to consolidate security and stability.
My compatriots tell you that the next is more beautiful, and that our achievements in 2020 will surpass those of 2019, and will bring us closer to achieving the goals of the 2021 Agenda.
I ask almighty Almighty to preserve our home, and inspire us both way, and to stop us in the service of our religion, our people and our nation .//