Interviews with His Highness - 16 February, 2013
Sheikh Mohammed’s statement to WAM on the occasion of IDEX 2013
UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said: "International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) has become one of the world's biggest and most important defense shows in terms of the increasing number of participating countries and exhibitors, the quality and types of showcased products as well as the number of visitors it draws from tens of close and remote countries."
Following is a translation of Sheikh Mohammed’s statement to WAM:
Our country’s political policy and approach ,well established by our founding fathers and being adopted, developed and followed consistent with the new changes and developments by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has ensured expanded and good relations with all world countries, thanks to our country’s balance policy.
Sheikh Mohammed expressed pride over the incessant progress of IDEX and thanked Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his unremitting patronage of IDEX and interest in this exhibition, which ensured its increasing success edition after edition. He saluted the female and male members of the UAE Armed Forces for working at IDEX and other exhibitions.
Sheikh Mohammed added that IDEX, which has positioned itself on the global defense industry map, is not merely an arms market, but also a store of information and a platform for updating hese arms through being exposed to the latest inventions in the field and the modifications made in the field of land, air and sea weapons as well as reconnaissance, observation, telecommunications and other military logistic tools.
He added that countries do not send their delegates and representatives for the mere buying of arms, but they do so to enhance and expand their knowledge and learning of the latest in the field as armies do not determine their armament systems and the variety of arms in days or weeks, they rather take their time to study, test and compare between alternatives based on which they then decide on concluding deals. Such decisions may take months or even years. Bearing this in mind, he added, the significance of IDEX is doubled because it enables concerned countries to update their data concerning issues of interest to them and give them the opportunity to expand their choices and alternatives, giving themselves, sometimes, the time to test them and familiarize themselves with the characteristics of the arms. As for us in the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed said, IDEX offers our armed forces a model opportunity to update our data and test new weapons and military equipment that contribute to enhancing our army’s competence and readiness.
Commenting on the UAE’s global success and reputation in holding and hosting defense exhibitions, Sheikh Mohammed expressed pleasure at the reputation achieved by the UAE regionally and internationally. He also expressed pride in the UAE female and male youth’s competence in leading the activities of the exhibition industry which has become a UAE brand for boosting our economy and expanding our relations with the peoples of the world. It also gives us the opportunity to follow up the latest creations by the human mind.
Sheikh Mohammed said: “I believe that our national competence is today’s most important factor in establishing and instilling the success of exhibition industry.“ He added: “Our female and male youth hold their homeland in their hearts, preserve its reputation and raise its name high, that’s why you see them diligently and untiringly working and always striving to achieve excellence and workmanship.”
His Highness added: “The other successes can be attributed to many other factors the most important among them being the country’s balanced policies of the founding fathers the approach of which has continued under President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Our balanced policies have enhanced our world position and boosted our humanitarian aspect in terms of aiding the less fortunate peoples and those inflicted by natural disasters and wars”.
He expressed pride that the UAE is among the world ‘s top aid donors aids considering its national income, saying that these aids spring from our Islamic faith, values and belief in brotherhood among all humans and the common human destiny.
His Highness said that the second factor of success is our commitment to sustainable development and our success in achieving it; this reflects continuous growth and progress of the factors of this development. Our economy, the second largest in the region after Saudi Arabia’s, records an annual growth and increases in terms of diversification of its components, means and tools towards the knowledge-based economy. Today, we possess an infrastructure that outdoes the world best infrastructures and we continue to develop aspiring to achieve excellence. In this context, we continue to improve our arrangement of international standards of human development and competitiveness, education, healthcare services and the empowerment of woman to put our country in leading positions in this regard.
“The third factor is the government‘s efficiency and the streamlined government procedures. We are determined, with all the success we have achieved so far, to establish a culture of excellence at both the federal and the local governments”, he said, expressing satisfaction with the achievements of most ministries and departments towards excellence. He added: “The services rendered to customers exceed the best world practices and we want this excellence to expand to all other ministries and departments; this will be achieved very soon with God’s assistance and the fortitude of our female and male youth.”
Sheikh Mohammed went on to say: “ in addition to the efficiency of our security apparatus and the rule of law, the previously stated factors altogether have contributed to reinforcing the fourth factor which is the well established security and stability in the UAE. A fifth factor in this context that contributed to our success in the industry of exhibitions is our ability to exploit the ideal geographic location of our beloved country and advances in transportation and modern communication systems, all of which make the UAE the premier destination for trade, business and investment.”
As for the preparations for the new edition of Dubai International Air Show, Sheikh Mohammed said the 13th Dubai Air Show, which will be held on November 17th, will push through as scheduled and as planned. The new thing about the exhibition is that it will be moved to its new venue at Dubai World Centre’s the Al Maktoum international Airport. He added that the construction of the exhibition headquarters has been completed, including visitors and exhibitors halls. The new venue will form a new addition to the exhibition industry in the UAE, pointing out to the 13th edition’s reservations index which promises achieving new records of growth as compared with the 12th edition which also achieved growth in the number of exhibitors which reached 960 companies from 50 countries and attracted almost 60 thousand visitors from around the world.
Talking on the UAE’s ability to build defense industries that meet its defense requirements over the next stage, Sheikh Mohammed said: “I think that this question is self- answering; in the entire world, there are only three or four countries which are capable of building considerable defense industry which meets their needs. These countries are even non self sufficient and import many kinds of weapons and military equipment from other countries. We, in the UAE, know well our potential and our needs, what is good and not good for us, the world markets are wide open for us and their products are available to meet our needs.”
Sheikh Mohammed explained that the UAE Armed Forces meet part of its needs from the local industry and from joint industries it has set up with sisterly and friendly countries. We have an aero structures factory in Al Ain which produces planes spare parts. Its products are used by other renowned aircrafts factories, and if our leadership sees it is necessary and feasible to manufacture certain kinds of weapons and equipment, it will do that.”
On his satisfaction over the level of defense cooperation and coordination among the GCC States, Sheikh Mohammed commented: “Yes, the defense cooperation and coordination among the GCC States is ongoing, effective and covers all military areas. The future holds high degree of promises for cooperation and coordination and I am confident that the GCC States are like one whole unit and that we, leaders and peoples, are so close to one another.”