ABU DHABI: Collaboration with other countries is crucial for the UAE’s economic growth, the chief of one of the country’s most successful global investment companies has said.
Speaking at this year’s Investopia conference, Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, the managing director & group CEO of Mubadala, said that such partnerships would help the UAE become a force for progress in the world.
“Challenges do not respect national borders and collaboration can accelerate and scale solutions,” he said on Thursday, adding that he believed it was one of three main drivers that would help advance the UAE’s economy.
Al-Mubarak said disruption could also help accelerate finding solutions to the most urgent matters. “Our focus on disruptive innovation is shaping our future economic base and creating solutions that others can benefit from,” he said.
He warned that the UAE would be wrong to rely on one commodity or sector to drive economic growth when trying to achieve sustainable development.
“His Highness the President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan’s remarks [on how] investing in the right sectors will allow us to celebrate the last barrel of oil is frankly profound,” he said.
Mubadala established Masdar, a UAE-government owned renewable energy company based in Abu Dhabi, almost 16 years ago. Al-Mubarak said many questioned the move by asking why a hydrocarbon-rich country would look beyond fossil fuels.
“We believe acting early will be critical for our future and in doing so will give us a competitive advantage,” he said.
Al-Mubarak added that creating opportunities was ‘everything’ when considering what drives success: While career choices were in the past limited, children now have an array of careers they can pursue in a country that is only 52 years old.
The UAE’s Minister of Economy Abdulla Bin Touq said at the conference that the country hoped to double its GDP over the next 10 years.
Building on those comments, Al-Mubarak said that such growth would be “underpinned by investment opportunities pursued by the very people in this room.”
He said the recently opened Etihad Rail freight network would have an estimated economic impact of about AED200 billion ($54.5 billion) by 2050.
Al-Mubarak has been a key figure in the development of Abu Dhabi’s economy, overseeing Mubadala’s expansion into a global investment powerhouse, including more than 200 investments across multiple sectors and countries.
Investopia was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum in partnership with recruitment firm SALT as a platform for investors, business leaders and governments to connect and identify new opportunities.
It announced its ‘Marketplace’ initiative on Wednesday to enhance the UAE’s attractiveness to foreign investments.
Collaboration key to UAE’s economic growth, says Mubadala CEO
https://arab.news/2hr6b
Collaboration key to UAE’s economic growth, says Mubadala CEO
- Khaldoon Al-Mubarak says wrong to rely on one commodity or sector to drive sustainable growth
- Creating opportunities ‘everything’ when driving for success
Iran president says will not halt nuclear activity ‘under any circumstances’
- “We are ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities,” said Pezeshkian
TEHRAN: Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Saturday his country will not halt nuclear activity “under any circumstances” amid ongoing fighting with Israel which hit nuclear sites.
“We are ready to discuss and cooperate to build confidence in the field of peaceful nuclear activities, however, we do not agree to reduce nuclear activities to zero under any circumstances,” said Pezeshkian during a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Cyprus arrests British man on suspicion of terror-related plot, police say
- The man appeared before a district court on Saturday
- Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a post on X that an Iranian attempt to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus was thwarted
NICOSIA: Police in Cyprus have arrested a British man on suspicion of terror-related offenses and espionage, authorities said on Saturday, with Israel accusing Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of trying to attack Israeli citizens on the island.
The man appeared before a district court on Saturday, which ordered an eight-day detention pending inquiries.
Police gave no further details, citing national security.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a post on X that an Iranian attempt to attack Israeli citizens in Cyprus was thwarted, “thanks to the activity of the Cypriot security authorities, in cooperation with Israeli security services.”
He gave no more details about the nature of the attack, and there was no immediate comment from Iranian authorities.
A spokesperson for Britain’s Foreign Office confirmed the individual’s nationality, saying it was in contact with local authorities.
“We are in contact (with) the authorities in Cyprus regarding the arrest of a British man,” the spokesperson told Reuters.
Several Cypriot news outlets reported the suspect was a man of Azeri ethnic descent and had been arrested in the Zakaki suburb of the coastal city of Limassol. The suspect was thought to have had a British RAF military base in nearby Akrotiri under surveillance, as well as Cyprus’s own Andreas Papandreou Air Base in the western region of Paphos since mid-April, Cyprus’s ANT1 news portal reported.
Cyprus lies very close to the Middle East and has in recent days been used as a transit point for people either leaving or going to the region amid the conflict between regional foes Israel and Iran.
Terror-related offenses on the island are very rare.
IAEA says centrifuge workshop at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site hit
- “There was no nuclear material at this site and therefore the attack on it will have no radiological consequences,” Grossi said
VIENNA: The UN nuclear agency confirmed on Saturday that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site had been hit, in the latest strike amid Israel’s bombing campaign.
“A centrifuge manufacturing workshop has been hit in Esfahan, the third such facility that has been targeted in Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear-related sites over the past week,” the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement quoting its chief Rafael Grossi.
“We know this facility well. There was no nuclear material at this site and therefore the attack on it will have no radiological consequences,” Grossi was quoted as saying.
Turkiye says Israel leading Middle East to ‘total disaster’
- “Israel is now leading the region to the brink of total disaster,” Fidan said
- He called for an end to the “unlimited aggression” against Iran
ISATANBUL: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday accused Israel of leading the Middle East toward “total disaster” by attacking Iran on June 13.
“Israel is now leading the region to the brink of total disaster by attacking Iran, our neighbor,” he told a summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul.
“There is no Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, Yemeni or Iranian problem but there is clearly an Israeli problem,” Fidan said.
He called for an end to the “unlimited aggression” against Iran.
“We must prevent the situation from deteriorating into a spiral of violence that would further jeopardize regional and global security,” he added.
Speaking after Fidan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Western leaders of providing “unconditional support” to Israel.
He said Turkiye would not allow borders in the Middle East to be redrawn “in blood.”
“It is vital for us to show more solidarity to end Israel’s banditry — not only in Palestine but also in Syria, in Lebanon and in Iran,” he told the OIC’s 57 member countries.
The OIC, founded in 1969, says its mission is to “safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony.”
Iran says more than 400 killed since start of war with Israel
- Attacks have claimed the lives of over 400 defenseless Iranians and left 3,056 others wounded
TEHRAN: Israeli strikes on Iran have killed more than 400 people since they began last week, Iran’s health ministry said in an updated toll on Saturday, as fighting raged between the two foes.
“As of this morning, Israeli attacks have claimed the lives of over 400 defenseless Iranians and left 3,056 others wounded by missiles and drones,” health ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said in a post on X.
