Sheikh Mohammed delivered a speech at the inaugural session of the Dubai Council for Economic Affairs. The full text of his speech follows.

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

I convey to all of you the greetings of His Highness Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and his wishes for the success of your distinguished council. It gives me great pleasure to inform you that he has great hopes for your distinguished council and he anticipates that your work will improve our potential and enrich the development of our country.

Dear brothers, it is by the grace of Almighty Allah that we have been granted visionary leadership, which has dedicated all ability and effort to serving the homeland and its citizens. It succeeded in building a modern country and a society that has enjoyed well-being, security, stability and prosperity ever since President His Highness Sheikh Zayed and His Highness Sheikh Rashid created the nucleus for the federation in their meeting at Al Samih in 1968. The face of life in our country has changed completely since the UAE Federation was established in 1971.

Since then, the march of giving and building and the race against time has continued until we achieved what we have now - prosperity and a distinguished status in our region, the Arab world and the world over.

Naturally, it was not easy to achieve this success. It was the result of hard work, well-studied policies, pioneering initiatives and visionary leadership that used wealth for the benefit of the people and strengthened the roots of society into one cohesive family, in good times and bad.

Our society has been and will remain a single structure in which the distress of one is the distress of all, as Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) said.

Brothers, the spirit of one family runs in the veins of our society. This is one of the major secrets of our success and it is the impetus that helped the custodian of the family, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, achieve the impossible early in the 1950s and procure all that was necessary to build the homeland and set it on the road to prosperity.

The march started by Sheikh Rashid will remain alive in our soul. It will inspire and push us, enhancing the spirit of family in our society and strengthening our will to do more work for the well-being of the citizens of the homeland.

Distinguished Chairman and members of the council, in establishing the Dubai Executive Council, a comprehensive process to organise and develop institutions and mechanisms of public work was launched.

We have started with the Council for Economic Affairs due to the importance of the private sector's role in the development process, in order to support businessmen and their initiatives and projects and to offer them more opportunities.

We look forward to your distinguished council becoming an effective structure that will give all those who participate in the economy the chance to contribute to creating policies and economic plans and also the chance to strengthen national economic integration and Dubai's economic status.

We look forward to a council dedicated to improving the performance of the national economy and the investment climate and to increasing productivity and quality in all sectors.

We want this council to provide an environment that incubates new initiatives and ideas and that increases the number of businessmen by backing young people's projects and incorporating their ideas and aspirations.

In this era of rapid economic changes, it will be your distinguished council's duty to help to ensure that our economy is able to compete in the world's open market.

This requires going ahead with the restructuring of our national economy by absorbing elements of the new economy and realising our vision, which is incorporated in our strategic projects - these will serve as launching pads for a brighter future, one that is full of success and distinction.

Distinguished chairman and members of the council, I delayed issuing the law related to the Council for Economic Affairs' tasks and powers out of a desire to know your views on the role the council will play and on the tasks it plans to perform.

I anticipate that you will submit your ideas and suggestions within two weeks so that the legal procedures can be completed and so that your council can start work with a clear vision and with the ability to become, Allah willing, a useful addition to the homeland and the citizens.

I pray to Allah to grant success. Peace, mercy and the blessings of Almighty Allah be upon you all.

Gulf News