Mohammad’s leadership ‘catapulted UAE to Mars’
AL GERGAWI REVEALS DECISION-MAKING BEHIND MARS PROBE MISSION
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, believes that countries have the right to dream and have great ambitions and gigantic projects. His decisions have created a new reality for the Arab youth to become part of the Arab Emirati dream, a senior official said yesterday.
Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future, told the audience at the majlis of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, that the Vice-President’s dream for the UAE is to be number one in the world. The UAE Centennial 2071 project was launched to make the UAE the best country in the world by that year, he said.
Huge implications
“With the UAE launching the Mars probe in 2021, the nation will be catapulted from a country without a single paved road to one that builds the longest highway to Mars in just 50 years,” Al Gergawi said.
He said Shaikh Mohammad’s leadership is also at the core of Vision 2021 — an agenda of national priorities that include world-class health and education and a knowledge-based economy expressed in a spectacular space mission that will make the UAE the first Arab country to send a probe to Mars.
“Shaikh Mohammad’s understanding of the bigger picture is a hallmark of his leadership, both as Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE. He has a clear understanding of the responsibilities and duties of leadership,” he said.
Al Gergawi said Shaikh Mohammad was instrumental in the creation of Emirates airline in 1985, Dubai Internet City and Dubai Media City. “These initiatives are the kind of decisions Shaikh Mohammad took at crucial times and are now potent symbols of Dubai as a world-class city and contributes to catapulting the UAE to Number One in the world in many areas,” Al Gergawi said.
Delivering a lecture titled The Science of Decision making: Mohammad
Bin Rashid Model , he said Dubai now transports its population on a modern metro network, welcomes 21 million visitors at the world’s busiest international airport and has an unrivalled number of luxury hotels.
Al Gergawi said Shaikh Mohammad’s leadership made the UAE a home and haven for millions of people in a part of the world that is increasingly uncertain and unstable; the country offers prosperity, security and tolerance.
Shaikh Mohammad, he said, encouraged and rewarded enterprise in all areas.
In 2009, the global economic downturn produced an economic crisis which made some international observers doubt Dubai could survive. Shaikh Mohammad’s leadership weathered the storm by continuing the UAE’s dream and doubling economic opportunities.