Khaldoon Al Mubarak appointed as the UAE’s first Presidential Special Envoy to China

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed issued a decree appointing Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, the chief executive and managing director of Mubadala Investment Company, as Presidential Special Envoy to China.

According to state news agency Wam, the decision was published in the latest issue of the Official Gazette, finalising the appointment of Mr Al Mubarak as the first UAE envoy to China. This comes at a time of booming trade and improved relations between Beijing and Abu Dhabi.

Mr Al Mubarak is the chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s strategic investment company with assets exceeding $226 billion. This month, the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute – the global organisation that studies and ranks state-controlled investment funds around the world – named him the world’s top public investment executive.

Karen Young, a Gulf region scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told The National that “appointing a high-level envoy to manage UAE relations with China demonstrates the importance of commercial and investment ties, but also the future orientation of foreign and economic policy”.

“The UAE is thinking long term, as the future of the Gulf region is more and more eastward in its orientation,” Ms Young said. She added that energy and product consumption are likely to increase in India, China and East Asia.

Last July, China’s President Xi Jinping made a historic threeday state visit to the UAE. The visit climaxed in the signing of energy and financial deals that marked the strengthening of friendship between the UAE and China.

As The National previously reported, state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company signed a wide-ranging agreement with China National Petroleum Company to explore partnership opportunities in the emirate.

Adnoc plans to expand its refining and petrochemical operations and attract global investors.

UAE-China trade is expected to rise to $58 billion in 2018 (it exceeded $53bn in 2017) and Mr Al Mubarak personally led efforts to boost economic ties between the two countries. Last November he told CNBC: “We believe China is an economy that’s going to continuously grow at attractive growth rates and that opportunities lie within that economy”.