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00:00How do you think the setup is for this year?
00:03Well, looking at the global economy and the fragmentation that's happening
00:07and the geopolitical shifts that's happening when it comes to tariffs and trade wars,
00:12there's always an opportunity.
00:14And the UAE's economic model has weathered the last four to five years a lot of these storms.
00:20And the basic part of the economic model that we have is resilience when it comes to diversification.
00:25The UAE's economy diversification today is about two-thirds, about three-quarters actually,
00:3175% to 77% of the UAE GDP is non-oil and is growing.
00:37Five years ago, it was about 69%.
00:40So we are growing up between four to five percent expected this year, 2025 and 2026.
00:46We have a growth of 5% as well in non-oil GDP.
00:49This shows that the UAE have the economic model in opening cooperation, in dialogue,
00:55and finding new areas for investments.
00:58And that's something which we are always keen on doing.
01:00It's interesting you say the word dialogue because you know that the theme for the forum
01:03this year is the spirit of dialogue.
01:05But at the same time, there has been a lot of headwinds to multilateralism.
01:10You have a U.S. president who will be coming here and making a big speech on Wednesday.
01:15But his approach has been one to tear up the existing playbook and really to challenge the
01:19norms that have existed with these multilateral institutions.
01:21What place is there, do you think, as an economy minister, for multilateralism in today's world?
01:26Well, it's very important that the UAE's economy, we always, you know, look at the multilateralism
01:31as a key important aspect to really have that dialogue, to really converge, to really speak
01:36in the G20, in the BRICS, and others as well, in the UN institutions, from tourism, from
01:41trade organizations.
01:43That's something which is important to really bring that dialogue and really speak about,
01:47you know, weathering the kind of challenges that's happening.
01:51We've seen a global economy that has a lot of elections happening this year.
01:56We're going to see a lot of, you know, industrialization policies, protectionism.
02:00But we need to weather this as well and we need to have diversification as part of the economy.
02:04And this is the kind of resilience model that we have.
02:07Now, let me explain a couple of things that we've been doing in the UAE.
02:09A more specific one was very recent.
02:11We've changed the UAE company commercial law, changed about 15 articles in it that has
02:16today introduced 15 types of share types that you can introduce to a limited liability company,
02:22for instance.
02:22You can start a non-for-profit company, for instance, in the UAE.
02:27You can move from Emirate to Free Zone, Free Zone to any Emirate, Emirate Abu Dhabi to Dubai
02:32company without diluting the company and starting up again and losing all the financial history
02:37of the such companies.
02:39So movement as well made it more easier as well for the UAE.
02:41So that's kind of, you know, changes that happened in the law itself just 30 days ago have really
02:48eluded as well the kind of, you know, growth that we're looking at.
02:50We're looking at 10 to 15 percent growth in company registration just from that changes.
02:55Yeah.
02:55Let me pick you up on one thing before we talk about ease of doing business in the UAE.
02:59The UAE trades with Iran.
03:02UAE has economic relationships with Russia.
03:06And I wonder whether you think about the economic consequences of that, simply because, again,
03:12you have a U.S. president who thinks about weaponizing the economy.
03:14He's even spoken about a potential 15 percent tariff on the UAE because they still trade
03:19with Iran.
03:20Do you think about that?
03:21In the whole aspect of that, all that, UAE's economic model is really based on trade, based
03:27on the economy, based on investment.
03:28We look at resilience.
03:30We look at diversification.
03:32UAE have attracted about $42 billion worth of FDI inflow into the UAE.
03:39We've grown from $19 billion three years ago up to $20, $30, $40 billion worth of FDI
03:44inflow in the UAE.
03:45So UAE has been an attractive magnet in the region as well for investments to come in the
03:50UAE, to look at the UAE opportunity.
03:51We've seen the growth of companies from five years ago, from 600,000 registered to now 1.4
03:57million.
03:58And we are expecting to reach 2 million companies registered in the UAE in the next couple of
04:04six to seven years.
04:05But that's kind of the growth.
04:06I believe in the UAE's vision, believe in the UAE's economic model, believe in the kind
04:10of aspect that the UAE is doing something right.
04:12And I think the more important aspect is from, like I said, the company law to the SIPA signings,
04:18to the reform into the immigration policies, the golden visas, for instance, have really
04:22transformed that.
04:23And tourism is, of course, tourism today represents about 15% of the UAE's economy, GDP.
04:30And that's when we show that UAE can go as well more than 17 to 18% of that in tourism.
04:35Today, the occupancy rate in UAE's hotels goes up to 78% on Iran.
04:40That's one of the highest in the world.
04:41Yeah.
04:42I'm sure you've heard Ray Dalio say this before, but he's several times mentioned that, in
04:46his view, the UAE is a renaissance country or Abu Dhabi is a renaissance state, right?
04:51He tends to use that term quite a lot.
04:54And when you talk about ease of doing business, I mean, there is a reason that lots of asset
04:57managers, companies, financial institutions have chosen to relocate or to establish offices
05:02in the UAE because of that ease of doing business.
05:05What do you think enables the system to get this type of decision making through in an efficient
05:13and timely manner?
05:14Because it probably is a model that many countries around the world are looking at and saying
05:18we'd love to do the same as well.
05:20Well, you know, trick is done from the leadership.
05:22Today, we have the leadership wants the UAE to be 24-7, operates like an ink incorporation.
05:31The UAE's government today needs to provide services, you know, to everybody at 24-7.
05:37Today, AI, for instance, is still in the UAE's economy, and it's in the government as well,
05:42to use AI in doing services and providing services, becoming more efficient and efficient.
05:46You know, we have in the UAE, our colleague, His Excellency Omar Olaman, the minister of
05:50AI, for instance.
05:51You know, he has a program and agenda to really incorporate that even within the UAE's government
05:56as well.
05:56So when you look at the model of the UAE, we need to make sure that we improve our services,
06:01create kind of that ease of doing business into it.
06:04Now, there are two things in any economy.
06:06One is the ease of doing business, and the other one is intellectual property,
06:10the innovation capacity that the UAE creates as well.
06:12Now, any businesses today, yes, they want the entrepreneurship capacity to really go forward,
06:17but innovation capacity is important.
06:19So we have looked at the innovation from an IP, for instance, intellectual property, the registration.
06:23Now, today in the UAE, we have FastTrack that comes up to six months.
06:27If you have a green IP, any intellectual property that's with the green technology can go even faster,
06:32there are three months' registration in the UAE.
06:34The UAE today looks at the IP as well, ease of registering intellectual property as fast as possible as well,
06:40like opening businesses, and this goes hand in hand as well.
06:44Earlier on in the interview, you said that two-thirds of the UAE economy is now non-oil,
06:48and the UAE economy has been growing around 4% or 5% the last few years,
06:51weathering a lot of these storms in the global environment.
06:55What are going to be the biggest drivers of growth for the UAE economy in the next few years?
07:00Where is it going to come from?
07:01I think there's a lot of growth, but today we have the green innovation district that we have launched very recently,
07:08for instance, in Expo 2020, the Expo site.
07:12The green innovation district today is powered by renewable energy.
07:16The UAE today is as well an important aspect.
07:19How can we produce green products, green industry, green technology, green IPs,
07:25kind of the hub as well to help the world be more green and to help the other countries as well to reduce their carbon emission?
07:33The UAE has the ability to do that.
07:36In processing, for instance, we process aluminum, for instance, but we don't have a bauxite.
07:40We process gold, for instance, one of the leaders in the world in gold, but we don't have a gold mine.
07:45And we process chocolate, for instance.
07:47We have the Dubai chocolate, but we don't have a cacao farm, but this is as well.
07:51But the UAE has a very strong aspect in processing.
07:54Now, when it comes to green industrial, and it's more specifically on the critical minerals.
07:59Critical minerals are more aspect as well for the future of growth, going from, you know, copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt,
08:04these kind of minerals that really are important for the future of industry.
08:08The UAE can help the world process these in green industrial zones.
08:13And one of them now today is in Expo City, which has been launched and going to be provided as well with circularity economy around it.
08:20Let me circle back to where we started, which is trade, global trade.
08:23I know a big focus has been the signing of SIPAs, not necessarily your mandate.
08:28You know, the mandate of the trade minister, Zach Sincit, Dr. Thani.
08:32But I'm curious to hear whether we can expect more SIPAs to be signed this year,
08:37and whether also you see them as a big driver of growth.
08:40Of course, SIPA today is a big driver of our diversification program and a plan that we have set back in 2021.
08:47And I think this is an important aspect when we let this kind of, you know, whole diversification agenda in the UAE for the economic model as well.
08:54SIPA had a huge part.
08:56And we're more than 26 to 27 SIPAs has already been signed.
09:00You know, we have as well others on the negotiation that will come under the plan as well.
09:04So there is more to come.
09:05And I think it's important to understand.
09:06Can you give us any hints on which countries or regions?
09:08Well, it depends on the negotiation that goes and how fast it goes.
09:11But they will come in very soon to the surface and you'll hear about them.
09:15But there are still more in the pipeline coming through.
09:18Okay.
09:18And just a final point on this one.
09:20With the UAE signing these bilateral trade deals, does it impede the ability for the GCC as a whole to get trade deals across the line?
09:27Not at all.
09:28Not at all.
09:28The same negotiation team who works on the SIPA, the same negotiation team on the GCC.
09:34But as you know, trade today has, you know, the GCC has different economic models.
09:38And everyone has different needs and requirements when it comes to these negotiations.
09:42But all of them as well complement each other on a bigger scale.
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