Sheikh Mohammed's speech at Dubai Strategy Forum

The following is a translation of Sheikh Mohammed's keynote speech at the first Dubai Strategy Forum.

In the name of Allah, The Merciful, The Compassionate.

Brothers and sisters, esteemed guests, may peace and the blessings of Allah be upon you.

First of all, I would like to say how happy I am to be hosting the first Dubai Strategy Forum and I would like to take the opportunity to welcome our distinguished guests and thank them for accepting our invitation.

The world is developing at an unprecedented rate, imposing on us many new concepts in politics, economics, commerce, culture and our life-styles in general. For this reason, we have invited a group of renowned international specialists, to hear and discuss their opinions of the world and its latest developments, whether in the field of the new economy, politics, social life, or international relations.

Before the speakers take the stage, however, I would like to share with you a part of our vision for the future. Our success and prosperity depend on knowledge of current affairs and the latest developments and we hope that the international experts here today, will give us further insight into these things. We have asked each of them to talk to us about their respective areas of specialisation, and we hope to learn from their expertise.

As for the officials sitting in the first four rows, they have been granted permission to be present throughout the three days of this forum, and we would like you to tell us how your respective departments have managed in your absence. I trust your ability to understand and learn from our guests. As long as the vision is clear, the objectives can be easily achieved. I would now like to speak about our vision.

We need the tools, and the methodology, to compete economically, culturally, and socially, in a world without boundaries, without obstacles, but also without protection or regulations. Neither technology nor money can bring prosperity, only man can. Thank Allah, we have been aware of this for a long time, and the result is the creative powers you have. Two years ago, we held another conference where we discussed the future. I told you then that there would soon be an Internet City, a Media City, e-commerce and e-government. Many of you said, "This may not be possible."

I agree that this is a new path, that no one has yet trodden, but I always say you are either a follower, or you are creative and take the initiative. I was always confident, as shown by the fact that I set a deadline. With your help and support, we have reached our goals. I don't refer only to Department Heads, Managers and Deputy Managers, but to the entire work force, whose hard work and understanding were vital to this success.

I recall that, when the e-government project was completed, some managers said, "Enough, we have done what we were asked to do." I told them, "On the contrary, you haven't even started yet." It's like someone who buys a nice new TV, but doesn't know how to work it. So, we have formed teams to train clients and visitors, because if they don't know how to use it then the entire project is a waste. There is more hard work needed. I have urged these teams to train the public well; after all, it is to facilitate the public's work. So we have arrived at the present point. As I told you from the beginning, everything we have achieved so far is just the foundation, not the end. Our target is greater than this, and now that we have one vision, and mutual objectives, things will be easier to achieve.

My brothers here asked me to discuss the vision for the future before the speakers began. This vision requires still greater efforts from us. I am optimistic and happy, for you have already proved your capabilities through your past achievements. Now we want you to show as much enthusiasm for the future. We must constantly teach and train ourselves, so that we can compete internationally. To be a success, you have to have done something which people recognise as successful. Never believe that your work is completed. For example, in the current international crisis, we asked Emirates Airlines to sign a 55 billion-dirham contract. One of our officials said to me, "This deal you're talking about, was it agreed a long time ago?" I replied that it was a new deal. He said that it was a very brave step to take in these critical times. But the deal was studied very carefully. Considering that, in the present situation, some companies have stopped flying, having suffered great losses, American and European airlines are not flying as regularly as normal, and even local flights have been affected, there must be good reasons why Emirates have signed this contract.

The reasons lie in looking to the future. We have to predict what will happen and why it will happen. Let me be frank with you, if we were to delay this deal for two years or so, it would end up costing us a lot more. Some officials have said, "This deal is of great benefit to foreigners." That's true, but I say to Ahmed and Emirates, you have to train our national staff so that they can occupy important positions in Emirates. Help our graduates to achieve their ambitions.

To develop, we have to transform our economy into an e-economy, and our society must become a knowledge-based one. It's a long, hard road and we are still at the beginning. The successful team is the one that makes 1 plus 1 equal 11. I thank Allah that we have many nationals of whom I am proud, for their achievements in the tasks we assigned to them. They achieved exactly what we wanted, using the simplest, and the best, methods. We must work together, we have a message we must convey and certain objectives we must achieve.

I would like to reiterate some points of our current methods, which will be incorporated into our vision of the future.

We have human resources, employees in government departments and graduates, some of whom have no job opportunities. We also have, in Dubai, businessmen of all levels, large and small. In our current situation, as we develop, we have to work on helping small businesses. I have heard of some cases, I would like to discuss this with you, when a citizen has asked for a bank loan, and the bank has demanded certain warranties, whereas if a foreign company asks for a loan, the bank will provide it without warranties, provided the company has a good reputation. The loan given to a foreign company probably comes from the money you have deposited in the bank.

We have asked for a program to be developed, to qualify our most distinguished students. Let me discuss this program in terms of our future vision. We will send the selected students to continue their higher education in the world's most renowned universities. They will be educated, and will return to our country to participate in our projects. We will select some of them for leading positions in the government, and train the rest to become small businessmen, developing profitable, beneficial projects. The government always supports people, but they are capable of doing well by themselves too - I didn't study business, but I propose my own ideas. If people concentrate on cooperative work, raising funds collectively, there will be many successful projects. For example, say 100 people each contribute 50,000 to a project - a considerable amount of capital will be raised. The government will support the project by granting loans and providing land to help ensure its success. In this way, young people will learn and gain experience of commercial activity. Some of them will be distinguished, maybe only one or two out of ten. Such ideas, private funds supported by bank loans and the government providing lands and facilities, will ensure an active economy.

Of course we support big businesses too, because they are ambitious and create such positive revival in the world's economy, but we need more businesses from all the emirates, I'm not just talking about Dubai, because there are opportunities, there is prosperity and, thank Allah, there is a bright future, in which we hope everyone will participate.

The government's aim is to raise your levels. The more people you gather, the more support the government will give, like Emaar, to which the government gives great support, because it constitutes such a large number of people.

I also ask the Ruler's Court to review salaries for government employees and to establish programs for the future to ensure that when an employee retires, he and his family are guaranteed a good life.

We must all work together as a team and exert our best efforts. How can we tell what is in the future? How can we tell that we have reached our objectives? One of the ways we can tell is to double the Gross Domestic Product; to increase the number of knowledge-based industries so that they are contributing 20 percent of the GDP and to develop the production and service sectors so that they comprise 70 percent of our economic activities. Another sign of reaching our goals will be when we are admitted as effective members of the international community, and offer a successful model for the Arab nation, of which we are proud, achieving the best investment of our human resources, as I mentioned previously. Rank is unimportant, what you give and what you achieve are more important. I consider the highest positions and the lowest positions in our departments to be the same.

If we want to progress according to a long-term strategy, we must follow these directions:

As I have mentioned, we must continually develop ourselves, in order to compete internationally in all fields. We must develop and not stop where we are, because life requires more from us.

We have to progress in the fields of technology and communications, carry out strategic planning, develop the service sector and invest in our human resources, as the future doesn't lie in money or machines, but in man. You make the future.

We must develop ourselves economically and socially. Our teams, of whom I am very proud, I have noticed that they love their work, and work day and night. Whoever loves their work like this adds five days to every week.

We want to work effectively in the framework of the federation, to strengthen and develop it, proud of the thirtieth anniversary of the union, and citing the wisdom and vision of our leader, His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and his brother Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

We must, as I told you, help the private sector to prosper and participate in an honest way.

We must finish our projects on time, because time is our most precious commodity. Everything else can be replaced, but not time. People naturally like comfort and relaxation, but it is more satisfying to work hard and enjoy your achievements.

These are some points of our vision. As I told you, the government is willing to support commercial groups, and we want, Allah willing, to increase per capita income to the highest in the region.

Excuse me for prolonging my speech.

I am delighted with our achievements so far, but we are just at the beginning of a long and arduous journey.

May peace and the blessings of Allah be upon you.