 You're very welcome, Davos, cold, but we're going to warm it up with a bit of debate and discussion, navigating the fragmented world as seen through the eyes of the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, in all its different ways, a country that has shown what is possible and will be examining in a fairly forthright fashion exactly how and why and the limits of, if you will, the ability to navigate this fragmented world. And what happens when you finally reach that limit? What do you do? We've got the people who really know about this sort of thing from the UAE. Next to me is Minister Abdullah Binta Al-Mari, the Minister of the Economy for the country. How big is the economy? Well, it's about 480 billion. And growing at what speed? With the 2022, we did about 7.9, 2023, we did 3.6, half-first-half, and we were expected by the World Bank to do about 5, 4, 5% next year. So it's a solid progression. But non-oil actually really shocked us. Well, you can shock us all in a moment with those numbers. I'm grateful. Nari Woods is the Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. What are you wanting to learn? Well, the most countries in the world are facing really difficult economic shocks, a breaking of lots of the rules of the world economy. And the Emirates is quite deftly able to navigate some of those shocks. So I'm interested in whether they can keep navigating them and which ones are likely to trip them up. Because that is, in many ways, the parameters, isn't it? Whether it's the pandemic, the financial crisis, it is that ability to be nimble, which needs to be understood. The Minister for Trade, Mr. Thani Ahmed Al-Zawdi, is with us. Sir, you have a busy agenda, the size and scale of the trade, but also the worries. We'll talk about the Red Sea in just a moment and how you believe that can be navigated or not, as the case may be. Again, what people don't realise about the UAE is that the free trade zone is one of the most important parts of the economy there. Absolutely. You know, the free trade zones play the major role in our economy, and they have a huge contribution to the GDP, especially to certain Emirates which that hosts those free trade zones. But let me just go back to you. In the last three years, with the whole global challenges, our foreign trade numbers have been growing and continuing to grow. To what do you attribute that? To the numbers. I mean, why is it? Because of the policies, the mindsets, the leadership, the vision that we're sticking to is continuing the growth. Last year, although the global trade went down until the third quarter of 2023, we had a growth of more than 120 per cent. We'll talk about that and we'll unpack that in just a moment. Good to see you, sir. I've been over the fences a few times. Many times. In discussion and debate. And here, I think the core issue, bearing in mind is AI and the warning from the IMF this week that you will have seen, didn't you? Did you see the job loss? I wouldn't say so much job losses as job... Misplacement. Misplacement, just job disruption. Yes. So we'll be keen to see how you navigate that. I think it's a very timely issue. It's very important. Actually, if you spell out what AI means here in Davos, it's probably all important because it's everywhere. Every pavilion has AI, every session has AI included in it. And I think the UAE has started the journey quite early, maybe 2017. And we can bring a lot to the table that we can share in this session now that as well. I want to go to trade, first of all. Minister, we've got three ministers. You'll just have to guess which one I'm talking about. I'm talking to trade. Minister, the Red Sea situation. Now, the title of this panel is about a fragmented world. And there's no better example of that in a sense than what we're seeing at the moment. How do you see yourself navigating that particular problem? Well, the Red Sea issue is a worrying thing. It's not only for the UAE, but for the whole world because the backbone of the global trade is the sea shipment. So disturbing that means that the whole thing is going to be disturbed. But let's go back in the last three years. Many things happened in the last three years which disturbed the global trade. Just speaking about the supply chain disturbance with the closure of the borders, the Swiss canal disruptions two years ago, et cetera, et cetera. So every time we have such an international issue which the whole world is managing to navigate around. And this one is another test to the world how we're going to rebalance ourselves and ensure the movements of communities around the world. For us in the UAE, the power that we have, and I think it's an answer to your earlier question, the connectivity that we have from the UAE and from our ports to the world. Right, but that connectivity from the UAE to the world through the ports, Yerbel Ali and other ports that you have, how do you expect it to be impacted by what's taking place? Let me just answer you here. And this is the experience which we built after the COVID. We're not sticking to conventional routes. We're rebuilding different routes. And that's why we're navigating the routes through Iran to Turkey, Iran to the north part of Syria's nations, and navigating the other routes. So we haven't been waiting for such an issue to happen. We've been working since COVID because that was a big lesson to everyone. And we started the action and moving ahead with the concrete action on ground. Now, we'll come back to this again and again. But I want to just get it on the table now. What the minister has just said, this ability to adapt, it seems to me as the hallmark of much of the success from the UAE. Now, we can go into the reasons why. It's a relatively small country in a sense that the leadership can decide and it comes down quickly in that sense. And that makes the Emirates perfect for navigating a globalized world. And I've just come from Javier Millay, who's propounding free trade capitalism for all countries. But that's not actually the world that the large powers are taking us into. So I'm really interested in how it is that you think what I'm seeing in trade is first on shoring by Europe, United States and others as they want to create jobs at home. And so they're starting to put, and we're probably going to see more protectionism to protect jobs at home. We're seeing friend shoring, security of supply. We only want supply from our friends. We're seeing green shoring. It's got to be green or we don't want it. What is that going to look like for the Emirates? Because it looks to me like a world of trade which is going to be more nationalistic. And therefore, do you think that's going to lessen the role of the port? Or do you think the upside of sanctions and geopolitical tension, what we're seeing now in the Emirates with India, is that going to be a big boom for you? Quick answer to this. We started this three years ago, three and a half with the three ministers joining the economy. First of all, we opened up our market. We start looking at the bilateral free trade agreements which we're evolving to ensure that the commodities comes to the UAE seamlessly in a price that is affordable. Second thing is the applying of the technology. And we played a major role. And that matter played a major role in ensuring the supply chain to the country. And which are the replacements? And how can we ensure the efficiency of movements of routes? And I'm not going to talk about it because the expert is here. Third one, which is a critical matter, is building new alliances and reshoring, free-shoring. We do understand that it's going to happen. We don't want to disturb our conventional sources, but at the same time, we open and diversify the supplies. So this is when we start to get to the real heart of it, isn't it? It's the traditional alliances that you had, which you've now got to nimbly sort of create new alliances where necessary. And I suppose how do you end up being friend to all without pissing off somebody? I think we took it from the Swiss. Oh. Yeah. Well, I think we are the new Swiss in the Gulf. Oh, no, that's good. That's good. Carry on. So first of all, thank you so much for the session. I think we are in the perfect session, perfect name, navigating a fragmented world. Last year in Davos, we were talking, we are entering a fragmented world. Now we are in a fragmented world. Now the question is, the fragmented world is going to stay or is going to disappear. It's going to stay for at least the next decade. We need to think about re-plumbing ourselves, thinking about new trade routes, new opening up, new alliances, new conflicts happening in the region. And let's talk about what's the major reason for this fragmentation. We are in a world where in economy, we look at one graph, supply and demand. Demand is so high and the supply is so low that's creating the kind of the turmoil happening in the economy. Now what's happening with demand? Why is demand so high? Let's take a couple of initiatives that's really creating demand so high. First of all, yes, okay, COVID-19 created a little bit of a choking to the demand side. We have aging economies happening in the Americas and in the Europe and Asia, where a lot of people are aging and going into the 70s, 80s and 90s and demanding products and services. Don't look at me. Don't look at me. I'm in 60s. Right, right. So I'll say, guys, going into 70s, 80s and 90s, there's a lot of demand of services and products. Well, let me finish this. All right. You carry on finishing. Right. There we go. My name is... That's $10. What? Exciting. Right. Carry on. So what's happening with demand that? Second thing, China. China just opened up a year and a half ago. Right. What's happening with that? There's a big choke of really going back to the factory floors, really pushing products out. I'll come. Let me finish my demand part, argument here. The other part is where China today, two decades ago, 20 million of them was middle class. Today, 700 million of Chinese beer population is middle class. Same thing goes to India. Now, expect a middle class to go back to factory floors. No. Who would go back until you produce products? How do you think about that? Now, re-supplying, supply is going to start being slowly, slowly, abrupted by so many conflicts happening, so many challenges happening. That's a fragmented world we are at. Now, when you speak to central bankers, they're good friends of mine and I love them, but we do disagree with them a lot. Oh, well, what? So many things. Oh, God, tell me. Increase interest rates. Well, yes, because of inflation. That's right, because demand and supply. Because demand is so high, supply is so low, the prices of products are going up, so inflation is up. Right. Well, I think that's it. Yeah, let's not go down that road. I'm going to go there. I'm going to go there. That's my foot into the door. Let me speak about interest rate. So when you speak to central bankers, what do they say? If you want to stop the inflation, increase interest rates, right? That's they've done it back in the 70s and 80s. They say they call it the chalk, the demand. Well, I don't think that's going to work. Demand is still going to go high and supply is going to be uprooted across the world. Now, that's a fragmented world. Now, what the UAE is navigating now to it? Now, I'm going to come back to the UAE's part. That you are. Right. So the UAE is really looking into this fragmented world and saying, with Dr Othani and the team and the colleagues of ministers here, we're looking at how do we look at supply routes, supply chain, opening up our economy, 100% ownership to companies, visa regime, bringing people in to really look at the UAE as a place, as a point. Now, the ability... We didn't start this yesterday. Let me finish this. One minute. We didn't start this, we didn't start this a year ago. UAE built an infrastructure for Seaport. We built an infrastructure for airport in the 80s. We have the biggest airlines in the world and we have a brain port today. A lot of people. It's the number one country, number one nation to have the world, Arab youth to look at the UAE. All right, you've turned your advert. You've turned your advert. Now, tell me... You're not going to come back to me now. Sorry? You're not going to come back to me now. Oh, no, believe me. I'm well familiar with that trick. No, I'm going to stay with you for one more. What? Because it is the ability to do that nimbleness of moving things around. Right. But what's your focus at the moment? Well, four focuses, if you allow me. Just settle on the most important. Well, the world, so pre-COVID time, when a factory receives a call, I say I want quantity X and by this date. Today the factory gets a call, say I want quantity X by this date and how carbon neutral it is. Right. So we have a transition of climate change. We have a transition of energy. We have a transition of AI. We have a transition of life sciences. What are the focuses into the fragmented world navigating towards understanding the green growth of the world and these kind of aspects? Minister Alama, you just heard the sort of the nuts and bolts side of it. Ships moving things, which is crucial to the global economy. But the ability to play in the new economy, which is also part of the old economy, but let's not pass this none. What is the achievement that you're most proud of? Well, first I'd like to say I have the best seat in the room. This wrestling match that just happened here was fantastic. Well, that's just round one. I'm waiting for the coming around. To be very honest, the UAE has, over the last couple of decades, really transformed itself into a purely oil-based economy, to an economy that is a role model to moving beyond oil. First, you look at our sovereign wealth funds, some of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world that have invested very actively in fields that were seen as hypothetical fields. Let me give you an example. People talk about the UAE and AI as if it happened in 2017. The UAE has been investing in semiconductors, in fabrication factories, since global foundries in the early 2010s. So we have actually had a focus on artificial intelligence, on compute, on digital economy, many years prior to it becoming a focus of the world. And how far is that actually domestically related versus external investment, or FDI, which will provide economic benefits? Absolutely. But you really want it at home. So you have two things. First of all, I think there is an incredible set of achievements that we're happy about. The first is September 2021, the number of workers that were in the high-tech space in the UAE were around 30,000. By September 2023, the number of workers are around 120,000. So we've seen a four-fold increase in two years. What is the reason for that? It's not just government spending. It's quality of life. So you can choose to work anywhere on earth. You will choose to come to the UAE. Second, it's friendly policy regimes and regulations. And third, the UAE has an advantage that no other country has. You have 200 nationalities that live in a very densely populated set of cities. That allows for the data sets to be truly global. So I'm able to deploy in the UAE and reflect to the whole world what the demand is. And third, you're able to move very quickly because of the cutting-edge infrastructure that exists. No. Thank you. I want to say one more. Just a moment, sir. On the floor. Sir, with respect. The rule of law. With respect, sir. With respect. Because I just want to follow through with that. But the ability of the UAE in a limited... essentially for a decision to be taken and it to be implemented and then executed because, from top to bottom, it's a truncated system in that sense. That's a great advantage. Whatever other people might say about that. That is an advantage. You can move faster. So, you know, there's another advantage, Richard. That is one very good advantage. The second is today you have credibility. When you say I'm going to do something, people believe you. And when you talk about artificial intelligence, especially a very cutting-edge field like this, and say I'm going to build an ecosystem home, you actually need to attract the best and brightest from around the world. And you can do it if you have credibility. Minister, how easy is it in this? We're all familiar with Dubai and we're all familiar with Abu Dhabi. But the other Emirates within the UAE are now saying, well, hang on a second. You know, we want to share in it as well. And that ability, of course, in a federated system that you have is also significant to spread the growth and spread the wealth. Yes, of course. And every Emirate has its own economy. Every Emirate has its own strength. We launched very recently the cluster economy in the UAE. This is ways of, as well, to bring all the economies locally, you know, working together, building on their strengths. For instance, Dubai has a very strong infrastructure. There's a huge insurance industry in Abu Dhabi. So we're focusing on the food processing, for instance, in the UAE, as a cluster economy. We have the farms and the farmers towards Al Ain, towards Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah. So we're bringing all the food, the production, the packaging, and the food processing aspect. But we're working all in one way. And one, the whole economy of the UAE, having the benefit of growing together. We complement each other in the UAE. And as Excellency Abdullah said, we capitalize on the location and the capabilities of each Emirate. And whatever is happening in Abu Dhabi is affecting the Fujairah and Ras al-Khaimah, and vice versa. And at the same time, we see what are the factors in each Emirate, and I will play with it. I'll give you an example here. For example, it's the Emirates which gives us the access to the Indian Ocean. So most of our oil and gas storages are located there. And the pipeline is directly from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah. It's a natural thing because that is going to give us a strategic bypass of hormone strength, et cetera, et cetera. So we capitalize on the capabilities and the factors of different Emirates to move things forward. That is a huge potential that I don't think is perhaps realized. And arguably, even within the UAE, it's not fully exploited yet. This idea of there are seven and there are different... I mean, sometimes people like myself like to focus on the tensions between, say, the capital and the larger city. But there are opportunities. Well, there are opportunities in all Emirates. There are different landscapes. There's different terrains. There's different ways of looking at it. As Dr. Thani mentioned, we have access to Fujairah in the Indian Ocean. We have the access to the Gulf. There's ways to look at it from perspective. There's competition. And competition between the seven Emirates is amazing. Looking at it because you need competition. Is that really? Yes, of course. You need competition. On the private sector, I mean, there's a lot of services innovation is created when competition is available. And we have launched our competition launch for increasing more competition, actually, in the Emirates. That's something which really hopes that a lot of private sector comes in and compete. Because when you open the economy, you open trade, you open talent and bring talent in. You have competition that's missing, which creates a lot of people coming and competing. They want a competing market. Is that who you're really competing with? I'm sitting thinking about Qatar and its role competing. I'm a great believer that competition brings out the best in countries. And now, I think with Saudi Arabia's ambitious project to start attracting tourism, I think you've got competition from that quarter as well. And how do you think about that? Are you just going to stay running ahead? I'm just wondering. Numbers? Please, yeah. When you look at the GDP growth, if competition will say it will not let us grow, then all my GDP numbers should be in the minus. And if we look at that in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia GDP should be in the minus. Qatar as well? No. Actually, we've grown the highest growth GDP in the GCC in all countries. Take back 2022. Now, because of my interest rate with central banks, reduce my GDP growth in 2023, but we're expected the whole GCC to grow in 2024, at least an average of 5%. Now, where is the competition part that really slows down? But the rising tide will lift all boats. That's what they said. But, yes, you are in competition in a fragmented world for investment, and Saudi Arabia is basically going on to turbospeed. Let me speak about our domestic competition. It is a very healthy competition which push everyone to improve and adopt new technologies and practices. So, wherever it's happening in one image, the others is taking it as a best practice and move on, which keeps the momentum. So, that is an internal domestic competition. Global competition is open. We're an open market. So, we're not competing only with Saudis, we're competing with Singapore, we're competing with Hong Kong. We're considering ourselves as a Singapore of the Middle East, basically, because they've been ahead of us 15 years ahead, and now we're taking over. We're taking in many of the efforts that has been there in Singapore. You have beginner advantage, and the genius of your career founding so you're well and truly on the way, but others are catching up. So, Mr. Alama, what do you need to do to stay ahead? I think Richard, competition is the wrong word. I think co-opetition. There are certain things that we cooperate in. There are certain things that we should compete in, because it's good and it's healthy. But you need to understand as well what is the state of each of the emirates in the UAE, as well as the countries in the region. Saudi needs a lot of investments in infrastructure today. The UAE has invested billions of dollars in infrastructure over the last 50 years. So we are not actually competing on infrastructure. We are benefiting from what they're doing right now. We are focusing on attracting talent. There is another issue as well. There are physical boundaries that the UAE has. We cannot become a country for 100 million people, even if we wanted to, because the land mass of the UAE does not accept it. What we are focusing on right now is the quality of people in the UAE. Think about it this way. The Prime Minister of the UAE has given me a target. And he said, when we talked about tech talent in the UAE, he said, let's think about Apple for a second. Apple is 120,000 people at the time that are able to create an economic output that is higher than most of the world's countries. He said, what if we're able to attract the best 120,000 people to the UAE? How much economic output can they create? So in that sense, what we are competing for right now is competing for the top talent, even with Silicon Valley, even with Singapore. And for the countries in the region today, I think that competition is between us and the giants. On infrastructure, there are, let's say, competitions between other countries in the region. And I think that the UAE serves as the catalyst for this. We have the highest number of trade agreements between us and other countries. We have the highest number of companies in the UAE. So what happens, let's be blunt here. What happens when the proverbial hits the fan? And, you know, what happens when your friends are at war with each other? What happens when Europe has an energy crisis because of Russia, Ukraine? The Red Sea, who it is, yeah? What happens when a meteor hits Earth? What happens when we have a big solar flare that destabilizes all of the world's technology? There are so many scenarios. Well, hang on. No, no, with respect. The one's theoretical, the other's happening. No, no, they will happen. At one point in time, one of them might happen. Well, let's not worry about what might happen. That's exactly what you're asking. Let's concentrate on what's actually happening. The point is this fragmented world business. When your friends are at war with each other, and when the whole hits the fan, what do you then do? Each entity and stakeholder has to focus on their vision and direction and keep the other matters to the relevant authorities. So those matters are going to be handled by the foreign affairs. We at the economic entities, we should focus on our targets, as simple as that. And that was the case for the last 50 years of the country. Each entity is focusing in its direction. Can I answer this directly for a second here? Because I think you're looking for direct answers. I think at the end of the day, if you're talking about people going to war, if you're talking about any of these scenarios that you're putting in place, what it requires is agility, nimbleness, and adaptation. What we have proven to the world through COVID, what we have proven to the world through all the different crises, is we have adaptability, we have agility, and we were able to pivot depending on the requirement. The UAE will never allow for these crises to be what defines it. It will always pivot and always make use of it. And every crisis is an advantage for us. Minister? I think, first of all, when you look at it, the world had economy at the driving seat. And that changed. The world now has geopolitics and politicians on the driving seat and the economy on the sidestep. The UAE, economy is still driving. Geopolitics and the politics and social stuff is in the car. So we have a driving economy driving what we're thinking in our policies. I guess that's an excellent analogy. But just to sort of... Without pushing it too far, what happens when those other people in the car start trying to drive it? And... And also, if it's an EV car from the minister, what happens when it goes wrong? They don't have a license to drive. Good answer. Very... The thing I find refreshing about the UAE, both refreshing and frustrating or infuriating about the UAE, is that they have this vision that doesn't waver and does adapt. And the refreshing aspect of it is so many other countries are lacking it. They tie themselves in their own shoelaces and then probably trip over them. So I think, you know, in the School of Government, when we look at examples of government and that the minister has come to visit, what we ask ourselves all the time about Emirates is, is it innovating too much? I remember at one point, I think you were going to build an innovation index and a momentum index. And there's a question about how you balance the drive for innovation with enough certainty that more and more junior people can begin to really take initiative and take responsibility for their jobs. Because innovation can come right from the top, but can it come from the middle? Now, I... What's the danger? What's the danger? Well, so the danger is that if your innovation is all dropped down... Right. ...you don't build up enough of a cadre of innovators who take responsibility. But the folks on stage with me are proof that the Emirates is doing that. And I think there's a magic in that that we need to study. Can it be replicated elsewhere? Or is it because it is a relatively small economy, relatively small in terms of size? And it does have a leadership that can introduce policies much more easily. Can that be replicated? A lot of countries want to. So 10 years ago, countries would say, tell us how Singapore works. And now they're like, well, and also how Dubai works. Tell us more about that. What we haven't dived into, but the minister mentioned, is the 200 different nationalities in the Emirates. And how you... What we're seeing in all other countries are real fault lines among different nationalities in countries. And the Israel Gaza situation is reverberating across those fault lines. And I just wonder, is that going to be a challenge forthcoming? And are there lessons about that? Let me take the first one. Replicating the experiences around the world, if you allow me. Basically because you just cannot copy-based any experience around the world. Even whatever we brought to the UAE, we tell it to our own ecosystem, conditions, et cetera. So taking the UAE experience globally, without telling it to those nationalities will not be applicable. Now coming back to the nationalities that we have, there is something special about the UAE, which is low as a low. And it's applied to everyone, regardless who is that person. And we don't entertain any of the international politics to affect the stability and the security of the people, regardless who are there. And that's why we're continuing. We've been managing it very well in the last few months, not to ensure that politics is not intervening and creating these fragmentations within the societies and the people who are living in the UAE. Can I just add to this for a second? I think what people don't appreciate is the fact that you have these 200 nationalities thriving and living and prospering in the most turbulent region in the world. And that is what makes this model quite unique. That hypothetically, if you go to any professor in the world, if you go to any thought leader probably 100 years ago and you said that somewhere in the Middle East we'll have a newly founded country where we're going to have 200 nationalities living and thriving together, they're going to think it's science fiction. What was achieved is truly impressive, but it should give hope that it can't be emulated exactly, but there are certain things that can be implemented across the world to at least achieve a certain percentage of that. Let's have any questions. I'm just very conscious that we're doing all the talking. Any questions? Yes, sir. Wait for a microphone and we're off to the races. Hi, Barak Ravid from Axios in the US. First, I think at least to me it's something very interesting that I watch all three of you on stage and I think that maybe I'm even older than each of you, which is something in my opinion great that I wish we had more countries. And this is exactly what I want to ask you because the UAE has been going through a transition over the last year with the new Crown Prince and this new division of powers within the Emirati government or the ruling family if you want to call it that. And I was wondering how does that influence how the UAE is going to take it from here? We'll start with you, sir. I think the UAE has built a really for the last five decades a reasonable model working on leadership. We saw the transition of presidency happened in three minutes. I don't know if you saw the video. The whole seven Emirates came together, the rulers. It was last and it transited in six minutes, literally, the whole presidency setup. I think that's how the UAE is very cohesive in the areas of leadership. And going back to the question is how can other countries do that? We cannot clone our leadership. The leadership we have has a vision has a way forward. They really have a thinking not just for the UAE but for the region and for humanity of the world. Yes. The microphone for the front, please. Hi, Alex Ravankoff in Silicon Medicine, our truly global AI power drug discovery company. And we actually do have presence in the UAE. More than 60 people in AI. And right now you have to be insane not to be in the UAE. Why the UAE and not somewhere else? All accepting, all inclusive. If aliens land somewhere on the planet they better land on the UAE. Because, you know, they'll be invited to shake Nyan's merge lease and include it. But my question is what are the top priorities for AI? You've mentioned, you know, hundreds of thousands of people that you want to invite for to be the next Apple. But Apple is very focused on very specific topic. What are your topics of interest that you think where AI is going to make a big difference? Absolutely. I think, so our focus areas are actually explained within our AI strategy. So we have six focus areas in total. We have first energy and natural resources because we believe that through artificial intelligence even if we don't control the price of oil around the world we can actually try to leverage this technology to reduce the cost per barrel and increase our profits. And second also reduce our emissions. So it's a win-win situation. The second is use artificial intelligence in logistics because that is an inherent advantage as DirectSense has mentioned. And we are a global leader in that. We have the data sets, we have the infrastructure and we have the companies. And third is cybersecurity. The more digital you become, the more you need to protect it and you need artificial intelligence in that. However, there is another angle to this as well. There is always a curve ball that's going to come your way. The system that you put in place, the ecosystem that you built should not just be built on the industries that you want to focus on. You can't put investments there. You can purposefully go and attract people. But if someone comes and tries to talk about AI and drug discovery, we need to embody the vision that they have and actually enable it 100%. Because what I think we can bring to the table as the UAE is we can bring scale because of the markets that we have access to as well as the nationalities that we have within the UAE. Yes, sir. Peace be upon you. First of all, I would like to say that I am an Emirati. I would like to say first of all that I am really truly impressed by the depth of these young leaders in the UAE. At 58 years old, seeing these young people really leading our future is very impressive. So I should really say that. Someone would say too young. Well, I'll say it to them privately. Everybody should hear that really. As an Emirati, we are extremely proud of our young people. My question. There are now a number of roads coming from the east to the west and we know that there is the development road from India and there is a cell road from China. What is the UAE actually look ahead for this? Excellent. Well, that is one of many of the roads that we are working on. But we want to make sure that we are part of the new economies. Let's explain this. This is a new philosophy which we have been seeing and monitoring for quite some time. The G7 now, which you are seeing, they are going to be replaced by the E7 in 25 years from now. Although I am expecting now it is even going to be much earlier. Who are the main E7, the emerging economies that are going to take over? We are talking about India, Indonesia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil and another two. We want to be almost having an economies 50% more the current G7. This new corridor is going to connect India which is going to be the new power to Europe, which was one day, a few decades ago the main producer of the global commodities. But nowadays it has been taken by the east Asian nations. Is that the only option? No. That is going to be one of the options to make sure that similar to what part of the Chinese option, we are part of this and we are going to be part of many others. Diversity, ensuring there is alternatives and ensuring that commodities and services from the union to the global vice versa is going forward. They are going to want me to finish it exactly in 6 minutes and 17 seconds. Is there another question? And whilst we are going to take these questions, I want each of you to think about a decision you have taken that you wish you hadn't. Something that went wrong. Can I go first? Come on. It is not a decision that went wrong. Can I go first? No, we are having some more questions here first. Yes, sir. And then John Dufterius. Hi. Thank you. It is Jack Dutton from our monitor. Given the recent development of the GCC visa how excited are you by that that you are getting trade with other countries in the region and there has been an uptick in trade with Turkey and I was wondering what sectors were key in that uptick and obviously the foring of relations to Ankara? I will just ask the first half of the question and maybe Dr Tharn will answer the second part on the trade. The first one was on the GCC tourism visa. I think that was an idea that came out from the GCC tourism council that would allow people tourists to really come and not just look at one country but has a bigger wider range of tourism to enter but it was approved just last month in December on the summit. Now for implementation it takes six months a year for immigration to really set up for such visa. Now what is the big thing for us? Now going back to the 60s, 70s and 80s and 90s population the aging economy retired they can have grand tours now and tourism in the past. So grand tours looking at aspects of how do you actually not just go for one country but travel from one country to the other seven days and really enjoying the whole GCC as one tourism package. As nations each and every one of us now are focusing on our own grand tour to come up with the big one. No but he has a second part of the question. You've just taken his time. John. Just shout. No problem. I'm doing as you know Richard of course at NYU all the time looking at the UAE economy and traditionally you've always looked at yourselves as a regional hub and I think the COVID-19 pandemic was a turning point in terms of how you handled the crisis. I'd like to see how you see yourselves today have you graduated to a global hub or not? Regional or global? We are already global. Let's look at the numbers. Once comes a global trade we're one of the top 15. When it comes to trade and services we're one of the top 12 globally and FDI we're one of the top 20. Digital economy as well we're global. So digital economy we attract 50% of all venture capital investment in the region. We have the highest number of digital economy companies and the highest number of unicorns as well. And a huge beneficiary of the sanctions regime and techno nationalism right you've carved out your own space. You know what's very interesting? So I'm in charge of the golden visa program in the UAE where you know high talent individuals get long-term residencies. Do you know that since the war broke out to Russia and Ukraine we've had nearly equal number of companies move from Russia and Ukraine to the UAE and what's very very interesting is although there is a war ongoing between both countries they actually work together and have close fertilization as talent in the UAE. Mr. President, I'll refine the question. Please. The decision which you are most proud of or that you wish you hadn't taken start with you. The proud of is 100% ownership for companies changing a taboo in the history of the UAE from 51 to 49 to 100% ownership for any foreign companies to come to mainland and own companies. Are you going to go the other way? No, I'm not going. No. I'm really proud of leading the comprehensive economy partnership agreement of free trade agreements efforts which in two years we concluded 13 agreements and many to come this year as well. And the other side? Well, we don't take distance by ourselves because we have an institutional framework and any decision that we want to take we consult, we do in stakeholder engagements and then we take distance so if that decision is right or wrong it's not a personal decision. Can I start with the thing I regret first? Yeah, please. Sometimes you can be too early and that is an issue. The thing I regret is in 2018 we hosted a gathering to talk about governing artificial intelligence and there was absolutely no interest. So we invited a lot of countries the response we got was this is a hypothetical technology we don't have time for this although yes we had 10 countries there people actually like to just be there but it wasn't really to that extent I hope if I actually had the foresight to push that forward a few years and rehost it right before the Bletchley Accords or some of the other gatherings that happened something I'm really proud of is we really combated ignorance with the decision making process in the UAE Ignorance is what's unfortunately driving the fear on AI and the over regulation in Oxford with Kellogg College where we have 400 officials in the UAE government that have been trained on AI and they are the experts that we're depending on. Barely a minute left 45 seconds I said barely a minute Thank you all for taking the hard questions and the soft questions and we look forward to continuing there's so much more for you to see there Have you made much? Yes I have 7? Not all 7 Me neither, let's see if we know anybody who can show us all 7 Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much