Dubai: Forbes Middle East announced the ranking of the 68 most powerful people in the world in its December issue.
Ranked 56th was UAE President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who has been the president since 2004 after succeeding his father, late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
In a special article, entitled 'Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a man of difficult situations', the magazine focused on the successful and continuous economic and cultural developments that Shaikh Khalifa has achieved and highlighted a number of key situations experienced by Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Chinese President, Hu Jintao, was ranked first ahead of his American counterpart, Barack Obama, who ranked second and fell from the top position which he held last year.
Saudi King Abdullah, who appears on the front cover of the magazine, was ranked third in the world.
The magazine hailed the effective role of Shaikh Khalifa in guiding the UAE economy to progress and prosperity. The UAE economy is the third largest economy in the region with a GDP estimated at $230 billion, and ranked 25th in the world, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011, which was recently released by The Economic Forum World.
