Mohammed's statement in 'The Business Year: Dubai 2013' report

UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum asserted, in his foreword to ?The Business Year: Dubai 2013?, that the UAE will continue to invest in human resources, update the legal and regulatory frameworks, and further strengthen infrastructure, pursuing new levels of development in accordance with the country?s future ambitious vision.

Following is the full text of Sheikh Mohammed’s foreword:

By God’s grace and thanks to the prudent leadership and directives of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, our country recently ranked 19th overall on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), which was a five-rank improvement compared to last year; our country also came first globally  in six sectors of the GCI index, an achievement, which we are proud of and which gives us an incentive to work harder to obtain further progress and top the world in this index and other areas.

Our country has shown utmost flexibility in coping with surrounding variables. Due to its precise goal-bound economic strategies and solid policies, the UAE achieved outstanding progress on global economic indices.

The attention given to the human element was and will continue to be the cornerstone in the building of the development system to achieve number "one" globally, the rank that we have set our sights on as an unswervingly strategic goal.

Our understanding of the true dimensions of surrounding global trends has had its impact on activating our quest - since early stages - to diversify the sources of our national economy focusing on raising the efficiency of all economic sectors and monitoring the major and influential developments to identify opportunities and best ways to benefit from them. We have also focused on creating a healthy inviting environment attractive to investment and supportive to the private sector, with our commitment that the principle of strategic partnership is an ideal framework which brings us together with its institutions in our common endeavor towards success.

The UAE’s desert climate gave birth to unequivocal will and an unparalleled sense of purpose to overcome every challenge it encountered. Hence it remarkably transformed itself in a very short time into a beacon of success and development in the region, if measured by age of other nations.

Since its inception, the UAE has been keen to confirm the benefit from its geographical location in the middle of the world by investing in the establishment of a strong and sustainable infrastructure represented in marine ports and world-class airports, emphasising the status of our country as a main gateway for trade flows, movement and travel in the world.

Since the UAE possesses the necessary constituents to attract tourism, we gave this vital sector significant attention; especially in the light of emerging global trends represented in the growth of the middle class particularly in the Far East region and the emergence of new strong tourism markets such as China, we  have worked to keep pace with these changes by establishing  state-of-the-art infrastructure  capable of  meeting  the growing demand for our country as a preferred tourist destination in the Middle East because of its elements to attract the convergence of all aspirations, especially in terms of family tourism which we seek to lead globally.

We look into the future with hope and faith. We have placed our trust in the capabilities of our citizens and their ability to achieve further success in various sectors, equipping them with all necessary tools to sail into new horizons never navigated by others and build a better future for the next generations as well as consolidate the edifice of the Union which was, still is and will always remain the impervious fortress and protecting fence of our gains and achievements manifesting our worth as an effective partner in drawing the future of humanity.