Dubai: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Tuesday said that the country's economic situation had begun to improve and that things were getting back to normal.
He also expressed his satisfaction with the progress made by a number of ongoing projects in Dubai as he toured the Cityscape Global exhibition.
Shaikh Mohammad told Gulf News his impression of this year's Cityscape Global was good.
"The projects are moving ahead, which is a good thing," he said.
Shaikh Mohammad was accompanied by his sons, Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, and Shaikh Majid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, and several other dignities.
"The UAE, under the leadership of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is prosperous and so are its people, who are happy and proud of its leadership and its achievements in all walks of life," Shaikh Mohammad told the media.
He added that the people of the UAE were dedicated and able to face challenges — no matter how difficult those challenges appeared to be.
"A thousand difficult steps forward are better than one step back, and hence we are marching forward to improve the situation and make it better," Shaikh Mohammad declared.
— With inputs from WAM
Dubai: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, expressed his satisfaction with the progress of a number of projects as he toured Cityscape Global on Tuesday.
His first stop was the Meydan City project where the chairman of Meydan, Saeed Al Tayer, was on hand to highlight details of the project.
Shaikh Mohammad also visited the Dubai Properties Group stand, taking a closer look at the Dubailand map, while developer Nakheel’s chairman Ali Rashid Lootah explained the progress on the ground.
Next on Shaikh Mohammad’s the list was Abu Dhabi’s Sowwah Square and the Dubai World Central projects, before visiting the Falconcity of Wonders stand, where he affectionately greeted the two live falcons at the stand.
On his way to the flagship development Meraas, Shaikh Mohammad stopped by the Paris La Défense stand, the French capital’s western business district which is undergoing a major redevelopment programme.
Shaikh Mohammad encouraged the exhibitors, EPAD the public body developing La Défense, by telling them that they would find many UAE investors for the project.
Exhibitors noted that Cityscape is smaller this year in terms of participants, but said this was simply a return to what the exhibition was originally supposed to be – a focused business-to-business event. Visitor numbers seemed up on the second day.
“It’s a lot smaller and quieter this year, but there are a lot more countries from outside the Gulf participating. For the first time, Egypt has more than one developer present. It has become a B2B exhibition. We actually have more time here to speak to Egyptian government officials then back home where everyone’s too busy with other things,” said Yousuf Hammad, Chief Commercial Officer, of Egyptian developer, SODIC.
- With inputs from WAM
