Mohammed bin Rashid: UAE with Saudi Arabia in good and bad

UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are looking forward to building an integrated model that supports the Gulf Cooperation Council and the joint Arab action, stressing that the UAE stands by Saudi Arabia in good and bad.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, he said that he sees optimism and hope for the huge development and modernization process in Saudi Arabia, pointing out that the vision of 2030 obliges the brothers to reach the night by day to implement their plans, projects and programs.

"The tension in our region is not new, it has been a continuous situation for 40 years, and yet it has not changed in the past," said His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The construction and development wheel has stopped, and the flow of investment has not stopped. "

"The UAE and Dubai have been affected by US protectionist measures, but these measures pose great challenges to the global trading system, the WTO and globalization," he said.

"The success of Dubai is a success for the UAE, and we in the UAE are a single, loving and interdependent family. Emiratis are proud of their heritage, their values ​​of giving, the good of others, openness, tolerance, acceptance of the other and respect for their culture."

And whether he shares Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman's belief that the Middle East could be a new Europe if his country takes the path of modernization and development or whether the Middle East will remain a prisoner of its conflicts. He said, "He sees no relationship between conflicts in the area of ​​development and modernization. But also believes that conflicts offer additional incentives for modernization and development. "

He said that "more than 20 years ago he warned of the seriousness of the situation and the need for change and modernization, but there was an amazement from some officials to exacerbate the problems in their countries, and more astonishment about ways to address these problems, and intensified and complicated until it hit a dead end, The events of the Arab autumn, which was falsely described in spring ».

On poetry and reading, he pointed out that «al-Mutanabbi is the closest poet to his heart, that he reads in many subjects, and that he is interested in ancient and contemporary history and memoirs of leaders and personalities that made a difference in their societies or opened up new horizons for humanity».

To the text of the dialogue:

The name of a city was rarely associated with a man, as Dubai did with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. It is no exaggeration to say that the city of lights and towers, There is no water and no electricity, and we rarely read to a man recently a journalist, not because the number of his followers on Twitter exceeds nine million, but because he might prefer to leave the talk to the vitality of Dubai itself, and is full of crowds of tourists, investors and passers-by.

The driver took me to the house of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid in the Al-Marmoum area outside the city. I expected to see Rahab Palace, in front of a modest two-bedroom house. The man loves the purity of the desert and likes to walk in it, but he is also keen to fight it with agriculture, lakes and buildings. The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the patron of the birth of the UAE federation, and the late Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, may God bless him and grant him peace, are the parents of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and his mentor. Many that the mother of the ruler of Dubai of the Nahyan, and that he always looked Sheikh Zayed as the uncle and guide, which later deepened the relationship of friendship and consultation and partnership with the children of Sheikh Zayed.

Despite the storms that have gripped the region in the last four decades, Dubai has stuck to its dream, and the challenges have been compounded by its insistence on completing it. This is also evident when we asked His Highness Sheikh Mohammed about the possible repercussions of the new US sanctions on Iran. Challenges, including global financial crises.

In the last week of last month, the presence of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid at the conference "Future Investment Initiative" held in Riyadh, cut off a sniper trip in Uzbekistan and deliberately attend to feel that the parties trying to exploit the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to target Saudi Arabia and stability, His position in this context is unequivocal: "We reject the targeting of Saudi Arabia, and its stability is a vital necessity for the region and for the world." "We stand with Saudi Arabia in good times and bad," he said in a statement.

On the sidelines of the dialogue, in 2004, after Libya's recognition of its nuclear program, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed received a call from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. "I want Tripoli like Dubai and be the economic capital of Africa," the Libyan leader said. Sirte, Gaddafi told his guest: «I have a popular revolution and you have an economic revolution, and I want now to launch an economic revolution starting from Tripoli».

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid has sent a team to study the transformation of the airport to a new capital, equipped with studies for schools and hospitals, a financial center and infrastructure projects, but the Libyan regime was not ready to receive an experience of this kind, sluggish decision and implementation, Corruption, all factors led the delegation to withdraw, the absence of a project could have avoided Libya's current fate dark.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed believes in the Arab ability to defeat underdevelopment and to engage in the revolution of scientific and technological progress to compensate for what has been lost for decades and centuries. It is repeated in the Council as in the conversations of citizens the words of competition, creativity, innovation and happiness, does not tire of sharpening the minds of those working with him, always reminds them that no one mentions the name of the second man who walked on the moon, urging them to look to the first site,

1. Does the return of US-Iranian tension affect foreign investors' calculations in the Gulf region?

Tension in our region is not new, almost a continuous situation for 40 years, yet the wheel of construction and development has not stopped, and the flow of investments has not stopped.

Tension disturbs the atmosphere and worries investors, and investors enter into their accounts, but the focus of these calculations remains the feasibility of investment. Tension increases the investor's caution, but does not stop his activity and search for favorable opportunities. There is no investment without risk. Profits, "and investors' risk is always calculated.

In our region, particularly in the GCC countries, the factors of attracting foreign investment are growing, embedded in the opportunities offered by each country's economy and opened up by modernization and development plans. From the State of Kuwait to the Sultanate of Oman, through all GCC countries, development and modernization projects in all sectors of the economy and thousands of millions of dollars.

Investors also know that countries have a strong memory that is maintained, that profitable investment is sustainable, and that decisions are not based solely on the data of a moment of tension or a transient event.

You participated last month in the "Future Investment Initiative" forum, and you took a stand in solidarity with Saudi Arabia in the face of the campaign it is targeting after the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. How do you view the transformation in Saudi Arabia in the context of Vision 2030?

We are always with Saudi Arabia in good times and bad, and our bilateral relations are strengthened under the umbrella of the Saudi-Saudi Coordination Council. The Council has developed a common vision for strategic integration between the two countries, economically, culturally and militarily, through 44 joint strategic projects. We look forward to building an integrated model that supports the process of GCC cooperation and joint Arab action.

I am looking forward with optimism and hope to the huge development and modernization process in the Kingdom. Indeed, Vision 2030 imposes on our brothers the night by day to implement their plans, projects and programs. The Saudis are a young society, more than half of whom are under the age of 30, and they need jobs, a massive expansion of housing and infrastructure projects, and before that they need to Modern education and an environment that is open to change and modernization. In addition, developments and changes in the world economy in its current and future status dictate the diversification of the economy, its linkage to emerging global trends and the reduction of dependence on natural resources. This is what the 2030 Vision promises.

3. Do you share the Saudi Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his belief that the Middle East could be a new Europe if his country took the path of modernization and development or would the Middle East remain a prisoner of its conflicts?

Yes, I do not see a conflict between conflicts on the one hand and development and modernization on the other. I believe that conflicts offer additional incentives for modernization and development. More than that, can a dispute be managed efficiently if it does not have the right tools? Can the old ways and means of thinking and old ways produce results other than those produced before ?!

I would like to say that, just a few years ago, I often have in my mind the Arab proverb: "as if he were authorized in Malta." For more than 20 years, I have been alert to the seriousness of the situation and the need for change and modernization, but there was a shock from some officials about the aggravation of the problems in their countries and a greater astonishment at how to confront these problems. Who falsely described the "spring".

I am optimistic about the future, and always look at the full part of the cup, and I look forward to filling the empty part. In the estimation that most of the leaders and elites of the Arab countries have absorbed these lessons, and here the winds of reform, change and modernization are blowing in most of the Arab world, and it is a true spring.

4. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia pointed out in the Investment Forum that you raised the ceiling in the 1990s and others followed you. What is this ceiling that you raised, and how did you do that?

I did not think of raising ceilings, but I was careful to do my responsibilities as I should. It was fortunate that I grew up and was educated at Sheikh Rashid School and the founder of the rules of the renaissance of Dubai, and worked with Sheikh Zayed, the founder of the foundations of our union and sponsor of the consolidation of its pillars. The march of Sheikh Taibullah has been accompanied by great success since the formation of the first Lebanese Confederation in their meeting on 18 February 1968, and their agreement to establish a union between the Emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai and invite other emirates to join them. The discussions of the Union's three-year project lasted for more than three years and ended with the establishment of the United Arab Emirates on December 2, 1971. Since then, I have been involved in building our federal state and building Dubai.

In the mid-1990s, my brother Sheikh Maktoum, may God's prayers and peace be upon him, appointed me as Crown Prince and held me to greater responsibility and honesty. I was very familiar with the reality and its possibilities in our country, region and Arab world, and I saw the great gap that separates this reality from the developed world. It was clear to me and others that the Arab world and the Islamic world in most of them failed to respond to the challenge of human civilization and the center of Western civilization.

Unfortunately, the dominant culture in most recent centuries has been the erosion of human progress, and does not see it, but it involves the breakdown of family and social and moral disintegration will lead to its demise, and that the inheritance of the land and what it is of the achievement of the Muslims. This culture, which dominated even our experience in building civilization and global leadership for about 800 years, has not only produced backwardness and expanded the gap with the developed world, but has also been accompanied by stagnation and intellectual vacillation, seeking solutions to the issues and problems of the present in yesterday's past.

In the UAE and Dubai we had to boldly develop our reality from within and with all its components, and change and update prevailing thinking and action patterns. We had to build mechanisms to respond to the challenge of progress, and to cope with rising global trends in every human activity; in the economy, in building self-strength, in culture and in technology. We have achieved remarkable achievements, recorded remarkable successes, established the rules of sustainability, and still have a lot of work. Life is not stopped, and changes are seen, developments continue, and the march of human progress knows no boundaries.

Over the past two decades, the region and the UAE and Dubai have experienced a number of crises, including: the Gulf War, the Iran-Iraq War, the September 11 events, the US war on Iraq, the financial crisis, the Arab Spring and its aftermath. How do you look at the impact of these crises in the region and how? Can they benefit?

Crises are indeed challenges that are always accompanied by risks and opportunities. If your surprise is at risk, if you are ready you can seize opportunities. We believe that prevention is better than cure, and we are doing what needs to be done to ensure that our country and people are protected from the dangers of crises and are also prepared to remedy their effects if necessary.

It is said in our Arabic proverbs «I have a crisis of exploitation». I hope that the severity of the crises has reached its peak or near the peak. And that a breakthrough is possible. Suffice it to pay more than the Arab countries and societies of high prices in these crises, the losses were heavy in the lives, money and property, and wasted years of generations. There is no excuse for anyone not to benefit from these lessons, and to draw through them objectively and faithfully, and to act with its goals impartially and sincerely.

6. Dubai has been diversifying sources of income and economic base, but the impact of global economic changes is still significant in the sectors in Dubai, how can mitigate the impact of these variables in the economy of Dubai and the UAE?

Your question assumes that the impact of the current global economic changes in Dubai is great and asks how to "mitigate" this impact.

Yes, Dubai is influenced by global economic variables because its economy is open and, according to specialized international reports, is the most open in the world after Luxembourg and Hong Kong. But reading this effect varies from person to person, whether that person is a specialist, or a leader of social networking sites!

I read the impact in contexts that accommodate the present, future prospects and self-experience gained from established facts. You may know that the economy, an economy, is moving in cycles of ups and downs. If the annual growth rate is the yardstick, the UAE economy and Dubai have not recorded negative growth in six years, but on the contrary a record of positive growth, always higher than the world economy.

In any event, our plan for 2021 is implemented according to the time schedule set out above. With the success of God and the efforts of our youth, the implementation rates of the projects and programs of the plan promise to achieve their goals in 2021.

7. Dubai depends heavily on global trade and retail, but there are challenges to the global situation. With Trump's access to power through his protectionism policies that restrict globalization, how can this model be pursued to ensure sustainability in world trade?

The UAE and Dubai were affected by US protectionist measures. But these actions pose major challenges to the global trading system, the WTO and globalization. Paradoxically, the United States, which has been the driving force of order, organization and globalization, has become the revisionist force that seeks fundamental changes in the rules of the world trade system and all the obligations and rights it entails.

The United States is an important player in world trade, but it is not the only player. Other players are important, influential and upward. For us in the UAE, our extensive business network can absorb any potential effects of US actions. Our main partners are the European Union with 22% of our trade volume of 1.612 trillion dirhams, Arab countries 17%, India 11.5%, China 10%, and Japan 6.5%. The volume of our trade with the United States last year was 5.5%, mostly consumer goods and electronic products.

In my view, the United States has taken the protection measures, because it saw the only means available to them, to stop the worsening balance of payments deficits with the countries of export economies. What is worrisome is the potential for a trade war between these economies, the predominance of bilateral agreements on joint international action, and the intensification of competition and scrambling among the major economies that may expand to areas other than trade.