 I have the great pleasure for this gala dinner tonight. We have the great honor of having His Excellency Khaldun Khalifa Al Mubarak. He is the chairman of the executive affairs authority of the Emirates and group chief executive officer and managing director of the Mubadala, which as everybody here knows is the great sovereign fund of this country. So, Your Excellency, it's again a real pleasure to ask you to come here and to tell us a few words before, before you are rushing to the airport because you have to be in Washington, I think, or New York, maybe, tomorrow morning, but before you come I want to tell you a grand merci. Khaldun Al Mubarak speaks very good French with a perfect accent. Please. Good evening. Thank you, Thierry, for your kind introduction, and congratulations on convening the 14th edition of the World Policy Conference. The depth of content over three days is frankly extraordinary, and I am delighted to join you all this evening. Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor to welcome you all to Abu Dhabi and to have the opportunity to engage in person, face to face, rather than screen to screen. I am sure many of you appreciate that as well as I do. As we navigate the long tail of the pandemic together, we genuinely hope that your arrival to the UAE was seamless and that Abu Dhabi's precautionary measures have allowed you to be productive, feel safe, and to connect with our wonderful city. In addition to this international gathering, Expo 2020, Dubai Expo, opened yesterday, sparking a six-month global conversation around innovation for the future. And of course, congratulations to France on its Expo National Day, which happens to be today. Celebrations are also underway for the UAE's Golden Jubilee, with this country's 50th National Day on the 2nd of December. Tonight, if you all allow me, I will talk about our government's policy, our policy approach for the next 50 years. Specifically, I'd like to share with you this country's response to the coronavirus. And in doing so, share how the UAE's government's values, priorities, and strategies were not only tested and practiced, but supercharged for the future. Let me start with some context. Our nation's approach to governance is grounded in the vision of the UAE's founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nayan. Sheikh Zayed brought the seven Emirates together to form the Federation of the UAE in 1971. We were a new country in a volatile neighborhood with a harsh climate and basic infrastructure during very early days. We grew up listening to stories about our forefathers mitigating and adopting to challenging circumstances. By necessity, they had resilience, grit, and a forward-looking perspective, which remains in our collective memory and present-day experiences. Even in the early days of his leadership, Sheikh Zayed had a farsighted ambition. That was simple, but visionary. He imagined a country where people had opportunities to learn, contribute, and prosper. He set the course for a stable and sustainable economy, and aspired for the UAE to be a responsible global citizen. I was seven years old when I met Sheikh Zayed for the first time. I was with my grandfather, who was the UAE's Chief Justice at the time. And Sheikh Zayed, who was larger than life to any seven-year-old, came to my grandfather's home. Sheikh Zayed visited families, often and informally, throughout his lifetime. It was an expression of how much he valued people. He said, and I quote, Wealth is not money. Wealth lies in man. This is where true power lies. The power we value. This is what has convinced us to direct all our resources to build the individual and use the wealth which God has provided us in the service of the nation. Sheikh Zayed's leadership was defined by his commitment to creating an educated, prosperous, and generous society. More recently, in 2015, his highness, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nayan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, reaffirmed these values when he said, to in quotation, Our best bet at this time, our best bet at this period of time, sorry, when we have wealth is to invest all our resources in education. Because there will be a time, 50 years from now, when we load the last barrel of oil aboard that ship. If our investment today is right, we will celebrate that moment. Close quotation. In spirit and intention, these pioneering tenants remain the bedrock of UAE government strategy. There are so many examples of this. Sheikh Zayed's deep respect for the environment drives our clean energy needs and goals. Last year's signing of the Abraham Cords reflects his faith in peaceful coexistence. And the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, formed by Sheikh Zayed 45 years ago, set the benchmark for forward-thinking economic diversification and investment. Now, let's all fast forward to 2020. During the darkest days of COVID-19's global disruption, that legacy propelled us here in the UAE. In late January 2020, when COVID-19 seemed like a distant risk contained within China, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed requested a briefing with all the authorities across Abu Dhabi. In the room, we had people responsible for the economy, the health sector, supply chain, national security, food security. We were all there, January 2020, late. And to be honest, we all walked into the meeting, me included, pretty relaxed. We regularly give briefings on different topics to His Highness. On this day, I myself talked about the economic impact that past pandemics had in the relevant markets. We each discussed worst-case scenarios from our perspective. And as we started to go around the room, we started to grasp what His Highness Sheikh Mohammed already knew. COVID-19 could be disruptive and devastating in so many ways. The meeting turned to early mobilization and a mandate to stay ahead of the virus's probable search. We talked about things that were unimaginable at that time, like lockdowns, quarantine, global shortages of medical equipment, and supply chain breakdowns. The most perceptive question that day was, how do we test for COVID? And the answer was a PCR test. His Highness insisted that we have the expertise, the infrastructure, and provisions to manage a comprehensive in-country testing regime. We all walked out of the meeting on high alert, recognizing that this is real and the timeline to prepare was bearing down on us. Our responsibility was made very clear to us that day. Save lives, protect all the people of the UAE, and safely emerge from this unprecedented global crisis as fast and as strong as possible. Because of that meeting, in late January 2020, the UAE is where it is today. The country has conducted over 83 million COVID-19 tests per capita, that is the third highest number of tests globally. Every day, we test more than 3% of our entire population, or approximately 300,000 tests a day. We have the fourth lowest positivity rate globally, at 0.1%. In personal terms, I test probably on anywhere between 2 or 3 times a week. The UAE has also administered 20 million vaccine doses, which per capita is the highest number of vaccine doses globally. 83% of our population is fully vaccinated, and a further 11% is partially vaccinated. The highest share of vaccinated population in the world. And our vaccination campaign continues, now providing booster doses to ensure maximum protection to our people and population. It's fair to ask, how did we achieve this? Unlike the ambitious targets articulated in our national policy agenda, COVID-19 wasn't a choice. But we are succeeding in mastering both in the same way. Our national disposition is to accelerate towards big challenges, or seemingly impossible, driven by the ingenuity and resourcefulness of our people. It is not in this country's DNA to ever stand still. COVID-19 became the rocket fuel that supercharged every priority in our national agenda. We are therefore now sprinting towards our long-term objectives. Let me share a few examples. One of the UAE's long-term goals is to ensure in-country expertise and infrastructure across critical sectors. In response to COVID-19, the UAE became the first country outside of China to set up a lab capable of processing tens of thousands of PCR tests daily. We also now have a domestic vaccine production capability as the first producer of vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines in the Arab world, with a capacity of over 200 million doses annually. That's already in place now. In March 2020, we anticipated a shortage of medical masks. Within four weeks, Strata, our aerospace manufacturing facility in Helaian, pivoted its facilities to produce 95 masks in partnership with Honeywell, with a production capacity of 30 million masks annually. The UAE is now a large-scale exporter of masks, with 80% of our output distributed to 10 countries, including the U.S., Japan, and Egypt as an example. A seamless, secure, and personalized virtual ecosystem is at the core of the UAE's transformational agenda. The pandemic imposed a wholesale change in how we conduct business, educate students, interact with people, and offer government services. The Al-Hasan app, which many of you would have downloaded probably upon arrival, is an example of our aim to centralize and integrate critical healthcare information virtually and in real time. A newly expanded telemedicine infrastructure is another example, and in the past 18 months, Abu Dhabi's health services, virtual outpatient clinic conducted half a million online appointments, accounting for about 10% of all its outpatient consultations. Following the direction set decades ago by the late Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's foreign assistance program proactively supports countries and communities in need. The UAE is always a first responder in that space, and throughout the past 18 months we have provided over 2,200 tons of medical aid to over 136 countries, including 4.3 million PCR testing kits and over 2,100 ventilators. 117 countries received aid from the Logistics Hub in Dubai's International Humanitarian City, and we set up seven mobile hospitals and clinics in developing countries. Millions of vaccine doses are being donated throughout international initiatives like COVAX, alongside $10 million of in-kind donations to the WHO. As a gateway between East and West, the UAE is deeply invested in strong diplomatic ties around the world. Undoubtedly strengthened during the pandemic. Our bilateral relationships allowed us to share information, learn from others' experiences, and kickstart mutually beneficial collaborations. In the early months of 2020, we were in constant touch, as an example with our Korean counterparts, to mine their knowledge and pandemic management. We have also been cooperating with our Chinese counterparts on three clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines involving over 31,000 volunteers here in the UAE. And we are working with partners in Israel on breakthrough therapies and technologies for severe diseases, which include, of course, COVID-19. The 2021 Edelman Trust parameter highlights that 80% of the UAE respondents say that government is the country's most trusted institution. Very compelling point. I was surprised when I saw that, but it shows you the level of the population's trust and confidence in this government. Throughout the pandemic, we made sure to honor that social contract by communicating often and honestly with our citizens and residents. And by being decisive, immediate, and transparent about precautionary measures that are based on science, data, and global best practice. Like our forefathers decades ago, by necessity, we were agile, imaginative, and innovative when this crisis hit with speed and intensity. We are now emerging from this period with minimal negative impact on our community and optimal prospects for our economy. This month, the UAE placed sixth globally in the Bloomberg COVID resilience ranking, which analyzes where the virus is being handled the most effectively with the least social and economic disruption. And COVID-19 hasn't been our only focus these past 18 months. We advanced our goals in space exploration with the July 2020 launch of the HOPE probe into the Mars orbit. Only the fifth country in history to do so. We are now gathering the first complete picture of the Martian atmosphere to support global research efforts and scientific understanding. We furthered our leadership in the clean energy sector as the first Arab country to produce nuclear energy when the Balakawan nuclear plant started commercial operations in April 2021. In the midst of COVID, we were able to start our first nuclear power plant safely and efficiently. We also continue to produce the cheapest kilowatt of solar energy in the world at 1.35 cents per kilowatt. We strengthened diplomatic relations first with the Abraham Accords in August 2020, a historic peace agreement between the UAE, Bahrain, and Israel, which is opening the door for partnership and exchange. And also, with our two-year term on the UN Security Council, working towards further global cooperation and problem-solving. We doubled down on attracting and retaining human capital by expanding our global visa residency program and creating a long-term pathway to UAE citizenship. We focused on our competitiveness by fast-tracking significant pieces of social and commercial legislation that make living, working, and investing in the UAE more rewarding, more enjoyable, and easier, including 100% foreign ownership of companies. We kept investing in growth areas of the future. At Mubadela, which I run, for example, COVID-19 supercharged our deployment of capital in areas that are driving global progress, like healthcare, life sciences, and of course technology. So what do I think the next 50 years will look like for us here in the UAE? Just like that January 2020 meeting with His Highness, there will be both challenges and innovations that I cannot imagine. But I can tell you, as a nation, we have the experience and expertise to take educated risks to advocate humanity and to advance it. As a government, we have a renewed confidence to excel in the face of challenges and overcome the unexpected. And most importantly, as individuals, we are empowered to contribute to our collective future. I will leave you this evening with a quote from our founding father, Sheikh Zayed, who said, open quotation, Future generations will be living in a world that is very different from that to which we are accustomed. It is essential that we prepare ourselves and our children for that new world, close quotation. Thank you so much for your time. I apologize if I had gone too long. But as you can see, I am very passionate of what we have accomplished as a nation over the last 50 years, what we have accomplished over the last two years in the face of these incredible global challenges, and obviously how excited I am for the next 50 years of what we intend and hopefully will do as a nation. Thank you for being with us here today. Thank you for making the time to fly and come from many different places. I hope you have an enjoyable stay here in the UAE. And above all, thank you, Terry, for your kind invitation. It is really my pleasure to be with you today. I apologize. I have to run. I am flying to New York for an important meeting tomorrow. But hopefully we will have more and more of these gatherings and I wish you a wonderful evening. Good night.