The UAE is a nation prepared to chart the unknown territory of the future
“If you are going to tell a story,” author and world mythology chronicler Joseph Campbell once said, “tell a big one”. Today, we are living amid one of the biggest stories in human history: the dramatic rise of the so-called “emerging markets” from economic under-achievers to central nodes of global business, economics, culture, arts, science and innovation. In the last 50 years, new Silk Roads have formed, linking and re-linking Asia to Africa, the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and the heartland of Eurasia to the heartland of Latin America. When the history of the 21st century is written in the year 2100, the rise of China, India and vast swathes of Asia and Africa will occupy a starring role in that narrative.
The UAE, a country at the heart of these emerging markets, has just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Its story qualifies as a “big one,” materialising from a group of emirates into a united federation in 1971, and growing into a cosmopolitan, commercially and diplomatically powerful country.
By many measures, the UAE is one of the most globalised places on earth. It is home to 10 million people, and conducts more international trade than Brazil or Indonesia, both of which have populations exceeding 200 million. Its companies account for nearly one third of global outward investment from West Asia and its foreign aid per capita ranks among the highest.
It is a nexus state, at the crossroads of some of the key transformations shaping our world today, including aviation, telecommunications, trade, investment, entrepreneurship and more. The country has also shaped many of those transformations. It was not always this way. A traveller to the UAE who happened to visit the country the day after its unification in 1971, could hardly have foreseen what the country would become.
Over 50 years, the UAE built some of the best infrastructure around the world. But its hard infrastructure does not explain the success and rapid rise of the nation. In fact, it has been copied by many countries around the world, often with more resources, without the same impact. While hard infrastructure is critical, it is just hardware, and everyone knows it is useless without the software. This is where the UAE’s real competitive edge comes from. Its soft infrastructure.
At the core of this soft infrastructure is the quality of life on offer. In November 2021, the UAE was named the world’s safest country to walk at night. On November 30, the UAE ranked first in Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Resilience Ranking.
The elements of this soft infrastructure are simple to explain, but very difficult to attain: talent, agility and entrepreneurial government.
The UAE is considered a hub for global talent. It tops the Middle East, Africa and South-East Asia (MEASA) region in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index and has been the number-one sought after destination by Arab youth to live and work for eight years in a row in the annual Arab Youth Survey. This position earned it many titles like “Land of New Opportunity” and the region’s “Scale-up” nation.
The other element is its agility. Small countries have the advantage of being nimble and responsive to global geopolitics. Decision making in the UAE is fast, in addition to its cherished values of openness and tolerance. It is also pragmatic. The UAE is forging new trade deals and economic partnerships ranging from India to Colombia. In the future, speed not size will be the key determinant for success.
At the heart is a world-class local civil service. By 2021, the UAE was a clear leader in the region when it came to government performance. It came third globally on the Government Responsiveness to Change indicator and fourth on the Government Long-term Vision indicator in the Global Competitiveness Report 2020 by WEF. It also came third globally for trust in government in the Edelman Trust Barometer 2021.
Centuries ago, while different communities were still exploring the globe, cartographers often alerted wayward travellers to “terra incognita”, an unknown region outside the bounds of the known world. Trends around us today, from the rise of Asia to the pace of technological innovation, mean that many of today’s historical patterns will not apply to the future. The pace of change is accelerating, and the way in which change affects society is different. New and unprecedented factors are emerging that are altering the very nature of change itself, making the historical patterns that we have once understood obsolete. The future is a churning and unknowable landscape, where the rules of the global game will be rewritten. The fast will have distinct advantages over the large, and the innovative will succeed over the resource-rich.
The UAE’s focus on local and global talent pools, investment in future industries and expanding trade routes will be critical for the country to chart this unknown territory and thrive over the next 50 years.
At the core of the Emirates’ soft infrastructure is the quality of life the country has to offer