“UAE is an oasis of peace and political stability” – Interview with UAE’s Ambassador to Hungary
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GLOBS Magazine’s interview with H.E. Abdulhamid Al Mulla, Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Hungary.
Your Excellency, it is a great pleasure to greet You as the first Ambassador of UAE to Hungary. By opening of the Embassy of UAE in Budapest the relations of our countries are raised to a higher level.
First of all, let me express our gladness for establishing a new Embassy in Budapest, in February 2018. This significant step shows the importance of friendly relationship with Hungary by the UAE, and also indicates that the leaders of both countries has the strong intention to strengthen our bilateral relations. I think that the UAE Embassy in Hungary can contribute to the deepening of our cooperation in various fields and levels.
How do You assess the relations of UAE and Hungary? Which areas of cooperation need improvement?
We are very glad to have excellent relationship between our countries but we can do much more to raise this to a strategic partnership level. There are opportunities in many economic fields where we can cooperate with mutual benefit. I think we can do more to increase the bilateral trade volume and to exploit the potential in the investment field in both countries.
We can also work on fostering the cultural and educational dimensions of our cooperation.
The UAE’s 47th National Day – celebrated on the 2nd December – coincided with the centenary of the birth of late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founding father of the UAE, 2018 was dedicated as the “Year of Zayed”. What are the main achievements of Your country that make You proud of and gained the respect and admiration of the world during this 100 years?
We are proud of having wise leaders since the reign of the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the UAE. The values of the late Sheikh Zayed, may God have mercy on him, laid the foundations of modern cultural and development renaissance in the country. Inspired by these values, our wise leaders built the chance to have a bright future for the UAE, strengthening its position among the countries of the region and the world. The UAE is only 47 years old, but what we achieved from zero is of utmost importance. The UAE became a top tourist destination, a financial and cultural hub, with the latest construction of road network, seaports, airports. We also have a long-term space research program and satellite project entirely made by our engineers. We are very proud of these results and we want to go further by setting new goals and realizing them. UAE is an oasis of peace, political stability, boosting remarkable economic and social progress.
Thanks to a visionary and pragmatic leadership, the country has evolved as knowledge based economy driven by innovation and diversification, and has succeeded to reduce its reliance on oil of the state income to 30%. How have you reached this unprecedented result? What are the main pillars of your economy?
This is even less than 30%, the UAE has made progress toward ending its economic dependence on hydrocarbons and crude oil. That represents only one source of income in our GDP. The policy of the economic diversification has led to impressive development in key sectors such as tourism, trade, financial services, manufacturing and alternative energy. We are building four nuclear plants in Abu Dhabi by a Korean company. The globe shifts toward renewable energy raises a significant opportunity for the UAE to become the first global country financing significantly the use of clean energy. Noor Abu Dhabi is the world’s largest independent solar plant. UAE will host the 24th World Energy Congress in September 2019, in Abu Dhabi.
The six national priorities of our country are:
cohesive society and preserved identity, public safety and fair judiciary, competitive knowledge economy, first-rate education system, world-class healthcare. Diversification will continue to be a key pillar for the UAE in coming years.
UAE has the second largest economy in the Arab World.
What is the position of the UAE on international level?
The UAE continues to devote itself to addressing major globe challenges, especially those related to poverty eradication, environment protection, climate change, establishment of justice and peace, supporting and promoting global social and economic progress.
The UAE has achieved qualitative growth in all areas. This is reflected clearly through several indicators, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, which covers numerous key areas such as quality of life, infrastructure, technology, and adaptation of business, friendly government policies. For the fifth consecutive year, the UAE ranked first as the largest international donor of Official Development Aid (ODA) compared to gross natural income (GNI). It shows that we do not focus only on our nation, but we are actively working on international level as well, making projects all over the world, helping people in need.