UAE | Government

Stability cornerstone of Mohammad's agenda

UAE Vice-President's visit will also boost country's trade with Syria and strengthen economic relations.

  • By Duraid Al Baik, Foreign Editor
  • Published: 00:35 February 19, 2008
  • Gulf News

Dubai: The UAE and Syria have great potential to further develop their economic relations.

There are more than 400,000 Syrian expatriates living in the UAE and the visit of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to Damascus (which began yesterday evening), will try to build on the success of the relations achieved in the past five years between the two countries.

Ayman Abdul Nour, member of the board of directors of Syrian Management Consultants Association (SMCA) and Editor-in-Chief of syria4all.org, said the visit is coming at a critical time of Arab-Arab relations in terms of polarisation and Shaikh Mohammad will try to explain to Syria the benefits of taking the right decisions at the right time.

"Shaikh Mohammad has long-standing relations with President Bashar Al Assad date back to 1999 when President Bashar visited Dubai and inspected its landmark development programmes even before Bashar became a president. Syrian President visited Dubai last year and felt by himself the extraordinary development achieved in the UAE," Abdul Nour said.

He said Shaikh Mohammad is the only leader in the Arab world who could explain to Syria the benefits of resolving certain issues for enhancing stability in the region instead of tension, including the election of a new president in Lebanon in accordance with the Arab initiative backed by the members of the League of Arab Countries.

"I think the message is: even if the decision needed is not popular with the interests and the ideological principles, stability that allows more development is always better," he said.

In addition to the above, he said the UAE in general and Dubai in particular was amongst the pioneering Arab investors in Syria. "Dubai with its investment arm is capable of enhancing its multi billion investments which has already poured into Syria and could promise Syria to expand such investments to cover other crucial sectors in the economy. Dubai offer is quite powerful and could help in softening political deadlock in Lebanon," he said.

Stability

Abdul Nour said political instability cannot be separated from economic difficulties in the region. "The UAE has special interests in stability beside its ethical responsibilities towards its fellow Arab countries. The visit of Shaikh Mohammad will try to blend all these elements to achieve the goal of a stable Arab world," he said.

"The UAE will try to compliment the Arab initiative for the election of the Lebanese president with special benefits for Syria and hopefully this will work this time," he added.

Samir Seifan, economic analyst based in Syria, said economic relations between Syria and the UAE have recorded a dramatic surge in the past five years.

"Syrian investors in the UAE and the large number of Syrian expatriate living in the Emirates have played positive role in fostering business relations between the two countries.

Dubai and Abu Dhabi are also among the top Arab investors in Syria and in spite of the difficulties facing the investors in Syria, Emiratis seems keen to expand their investments here. They feel that Syria has a great potential. It is obvious to see the UAE keen to work closely with Syrian leadership to enhance political stability in the region.

He said the UAE's two giant corporations, Emaar and Al Qudra, are already operating in Syria. Dubai World, which has functions in 24 countries around the world, can also help Syria to develop its ports. The UAE can do a lot for Syria and the visit of Shaikh Mohammad will have positive impact on the relations of the two countries.

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