Peace & Prosperity in the Middle East with H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Moderated by Danny Sebright, President, U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council.
SPEAKERS
His Excellency Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri
Minister of Economy
United Arab Emirates
His Excellency Dr. Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi
Minister of State for Foreign Trade
United Arab Emirates
MODERATOR
Danny Sebright
President
U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council
TIMESTAMPS
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Danny Sebright: (00:07)
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for attending this panel today with his Excellency Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE Minister of Economy. And his Excellency Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade.
Danny Sebright: (00:23)
Today's program is aptly named peace and prosperity in the middle east because it marks the one year anniversary of the successful signing of the Abraham Accords in Washington, DC. This normalized relations for the first time between the UAE, Israel, and Bahrain.
Danny Sebright: (00:40)
And as we celebrate, or as we come to the end of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah to all, and we ask that our names of our Jewish friends and all be inscribed in the book ahead for the next year on the holy eve of Yom Kippor. We're so pleased to be able to celebrate this trilateral Abraham Accords with all of you here at SALT.
Danny Sebright: (01:06)
SALT's been a leading global thought leadership conference. There was amazing conference in Abu Dhabi in 2019. Thani and his team led and they're planning and hoping to be an Abu Dhabi again in March of 2022. And we are very pleased to be participating in that.
Danny Sebright: (01:23)
I'm Danny Sebright, President of the US UAE Business Council. And I think as was said, we're the leading bilateral chamber of commerce and trade between the US and the UAE.
Danny Sebright: (01:33)
Without further ado gentlemen, let's jump right in because we have a limited amount of time. I'd like to cover a number of topics if we could. Coming out of COVID-19. And I just came back from two weeks in the UAE, and I'm telling you, it's a very different sense and feeling. 95% of your population is vaccinated. Everyone wears a mask. I must've had six or seven PCR tests while I was there in a two week period. You've implemented a lot of new economic reforms coming out of COVID to get the country and the region back on track in a very exciting way. Mr. Minister, could you outline some of the steps you've taken?
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (02:14)
Thank you, Danny. Thank you, SALT and the organizers for having us here today, sitting on the panel. We'd be speaking about the UAE story. I think the major story that we're going to speak about is next month, starting the 1st of October, the Expo 2020 happening for six months in the UAE, in the Emirate of Dubai. We're here as well to really explain as well about the story that happened the last 18 months. And let me tell you what I started my post back in July in 2020, which is the hardest post you could ever take as a minister of economy in the middle of a pandemic. But I think as soon as we started that we managed to really reform and really took a step back and read and look at the economy as sectors and understand what was the UAE's economy pre-COVID. And the question was, what's the UAE economy post-COVID?
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (03:02)
And COVID-19 really made a dent in the economy, not just in the UAE, but I think globally. And I think the economy is not going to come back to pre-COVID times and in a setup where we understood that we need to really put some regulations, some policies in place to really move the economy towards a new economy, towards new sectors, and areas of what we doing. So we started, we formed a team in the ministry of economy, we reorganized. And the first thing we came out with is a 100% ownership to companies in the UAE. In the past one ownership to companies in the UAE used to be 49 to the foreign owners and 51 to a local owner. And today you now own at a 100% in the United Arab Emirates. With that gave the opportunity as well, to look at other regulations such as the residency's program, which his excellency Dr. Thani, can speak more about.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (03:59)
I think we looked at how can we look at the talent? And the talent is the fuel of an economy. We already understood as well that there are some ex-industries in the UAE that might be not be there in the future. And then we understand that as well, how do we look at sustainability moving towards new economy? We found out that there's a lot of e-commerce digital economy coming to place, FinTech, Agri-tech, there's a lot of sectors that we started up back in COVID times. At that as well, we looked at we the FDI investments in the UAE has increased by 44% in 2020. We understood as whether there is a lot of people want to move to the UAE because how safe and secure the nation is. We had a message from our leaders back as was saying that everyone in the UAE is going to be taken care of. And that message really gave a pleasant understanding that anyone who sits on the ground of UAE is going to be taken care off. So don't worry about the COVID-19. We have everything under control.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (05:05)
So we started with a plan of a hundred billion dollars into SMEs and companies supporting them. We had the 33 initiative plan phased out on three phases. We are at the moment at phase three, looking at the future of the economy, really pushing towards that. And I think that's something which is very vital and important for us. Last week, Danny, we managed to launch the 50 by 50 projects for the next 50 years. You know that the UAE's celebrating its 50 years anniversary this year by the 2nd of December. And the 2nd of December, we are as well giving the UAE and the world our 50 years vision as well. So this is something which is very important.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (05:46)
So last week we launched about 13 projects out of the 50, more to come today as well, more to come next week, there's more projects coming out. So we have 50 projects lined. And let me tell you, Danny, this projects are not announcement of we're going to start. These projects have already started. These projects already been in plan and in the kitchen for the last couple of months and they are ready to go out at the moment.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (06:11)
So let me tell you a couple of things. We are looking at one, which is the investor opiate conference we are looking at. So the investor of accounts from the utopia and investing in the future city as well. So this is something which we would like to bring people attention here, that UAE is putting down a conference in March. In the Expo 2020, trying to bring people in to invest in the future, not in the current economy.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (06:37)
So we were looking at the future economy and trying to bring governments, funds, investors, SMEs, and entrepreneurs to come together and say, what's the next big thing in the next 10 years. What's going to make us disruptive and how can we invest in it today? And maybe announce some investments at that time as well. So this is what we are focused on. There are other projects that we focused on, the 10 by 10, which is a 10 sectors in 10 countries working on with 10 governments, started to put some economy trade agreements. Economic agreements to bring together the-
Danny Sebright: (07:16)
Thank you, sir. Dr. Thani, I came back from the UAE last week and I had 70 some meetings with the major American companies while I was there. They all spoke as his excellency said about security and how glad they were to be operating and doing business in the UAE during the time of COVID. The UAE, as we all know, is a regional hub, has been a regional hub, but the UAE what most Americans and foreign audiences don't know has become a global hub. Truly has entered the stage on the global scale as a hub for the world. You are in charge, you're responsible for some of these foreign direct investment incentives and working to make change some of the laws that make it more attractive for American and other companies to come set up business. Talk about that. Why should everyone in this audience be thinking about doing business in the UAE today in this new global hub?
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (08:10)
Sure. Thank you, Danny. And thank you for the organizers for inviting us here. I want to just compliment what his Excellency Abdulla, was saying. And we assumed our roles within the Ministry of Economy at the middle of the pandemic. But one of the main decision that we thought while joining the Ministry that we will not disturb anything within the country and we'll not go backward. And this is one of the main messages that we always send to our business communities. We released a statement and released reforms within the laws our regulations which is going to boost the economy and not going backward.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (08:45)
One of the things which we always work to sell, why the UAE? The UAE is very stable as a nation, has a very visionary leaders, leadership is there, the infrastructure is one of the most state of art infrastructure within the region and globally, and the safest stuff we provide for everyone. So what we have achieved throughout the last one year and three months. We sent the Hope Mission to Mars. Fulfilling our commitments, nothing will stop us. No pandemic, no crisis will stop our ground. Second one was the connection of the first peaceful nuclear planet to the grid and the whole region. Sending strong messages that sustainability and power and the continuities is the backbone of our economy. And then we started the whole reform of our regulations and the way that we manage the residences. What we have done in the field of trade and investments, we're talking about mainly four main pillars.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (09:53)
The first one is the how are we going to attract more investments. For sure, the promotions and the marketing campaigns, which were starting the engagements that we have. And thinking about the whole holistic approach, how the investors, and entrepreneurs, that anyone who's visiting the UAE is going to feel that the UAE is home for them. And by encouraging and improving the ecosystem and improving the regulatory systems by improving... The company knows what his excellency was talking about. At the same time, how are we going to give a clear picture on the UAE's business environments to the communities.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (10:27)
One of the initiatives which was launched last week, as well as part of 50 by 50 economic conditions of the celebration for our 50 years anniversary is then based of UAE platform where we're combining all governments for the local, private sector in one platform where they can have a clear picture and with clear visibility on the various sectors. And then they can't start opening their license and opening their accounts under 15 minutes.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (10:54)
The fourth aspects when it comes to FDI is direct engagements between us on the private sector and ensure that we're widening the markets for them. And we want to ensure that... We're not talking about the UAE market, we're not talking about the JCC, we're a global hub. And we're global investment fund to a hub.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (11:13)
The second part of the whole investments trans-trade is the how we're going to go abroad? What are the sectors which are going to be very strategic? We'd like to ensure that our companies are investing in jobs abroad. Now, how can we take our SMEs and the exporters, some of the small and medium companies with us outside to encourage them to expand and scale up outside the UAE. And at the same times, we are one of the highest contributor to the humanitarian worker globally. And how can we ensure that the investment goes hand in hand with this development work we're doing globally?
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (11:46)
The theater element is the three. We noticed that the three it has been declining lately, especially in the last 10 years. But at the same time, the service of theater is beginning. So we have to focus on service and we work on very dedicated and very comprehensive service strategies. And we're started targeting countries. We launched an initiative last week. We call it 10 by 10, where we're going to talk some 10 sectors, 10 countries for certain period to ensure that we are having at least 10% growth in our exports to those countries. And at the same time, we announced to eight country that we're going to start with them comprehensive economic partnership agreements. To ensure that those investors and the business people within the UAE they will have a wider range of markets that they can cover. And we're talking about almost 4 billion populations from far East Austria to far West of Africa. And this is the population which has almost 50 to 60% young generation, which is going to have and embrace the new technologies and digitalizations of work.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (12:49)
Last element is the tenants. On the tenants of human being is the backbone, is the DNA of the whole movement more focal. We're talking about knowledge-based economy. Knowledge-based economy is about human being, and it's about person. So we're not talking about the locals, we're talking about anyone who's living in the UAE. So that's why we went and revamped the whole citizenship system where we added to the Golden Visa on the National Program, which was announced earlier this year.
Danny Sebright: (13:18)
The Golden Visa means I can stay for 10 years, yeah,-
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (13:20)
Absolutely.
Danny Sebright: (13:20)
... as a business person.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (13:22)
Absolutely. So we would like to ensure that if you stay there, if you mean that UAE is home, we start even taking all the barriers that bind direct engagement with those investors. Having their children and sponsoring their children who are up to 25 years old. Anyone who lose his job he's not obliged to leave the country within 30 days, now they can stay up to 60 days so they can look for another jobs. Families who lost their the main sponsor, they can stay up to one year. So we took even the humanitarian aspects of the system. We launched the freelancer visa for the first time in the region. So freelance services is going to be introduced. And the green visa has been introduced as well. So we can compliment the whole system. So those are the four main pillars when it comes to trade and investments which we're focusing on.
Danny Sebright: (14:11)
It's amazing. It's different, and it's revolutionary from anything else that's going on in the region today. And it does set you up to be a global hub, for sure. You mentioned the 10 other countries that you're focused on in the year ahead. Just quickly, one of those is Israel. And we are in the anniversary of the Abraham Accords, just a word or two about the opportunity for trilateral business investment, and cooperation by friends in the audience here in that context.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (14:39)
Can I just start with that maybe so that, Thani, can add to it. I think when we had the conversation with you last year, and the Israeli as well, companies. We were talking about one major thing. There was a question that I see that says, "Well, we know how are you going to benefit from Israel, but how Israel is going to benefit from you?" And I said, "Well, Israel is a startup nation, and the UAE is a scale-up nation." And one year later, or less than a year later, two months ago, his Honor Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and the Vice-President of UAE, tweeted about the Israeli drone company scaled up in the UAE, taking a surveillance project in Expo 2020 surveilling the security of Expo 2020. That's a real time, Danny, of a scale-up project of what we were talking about. How can you actually look at the UAE not just as a hub, but the scale up for the region.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (15:40)
The UAE is today is welcoming 200 nationalities, people from every part of the world to come to the UAE. I look at the UAE as a gateway to scale up in to MENA, in to Asia, in to Africa, you name it. This is something which we are putting out there; our logistics, our infrastructure, our space is ready for the world. We already, we're young, we're fit to fight.
Danny Sebright: (16:03)
Excellent.
Danny Sebright: (16:04)
You have some brand name companies in the room today from the UAE that are titans in the industry; Mubadala, [inaudible 00:16:12], Abu Dhabi Global Markets. We have representatives on... You brought a delegation gentlemen with you, your excellencies, of some 20 some people. We have his Excellency Mohammad Ali Al Shorafa, from the department of economic development in Abu Dhabi. We have, Fahad Al Gergawi, from Dubai FDI. We have Sharjah' FDI. You're here on a week, traveling around the United States to tell your story. You were in Washington all day yesterday and had meetings at the White House, the Department of Commerce, USDA. What's your message in these government meetings with this great delegation that you've brought, and with businesses that you're meeting with? What are you trying to convey?
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (16:53)
Well, let me tell you one thing, Danny, in all these meetings we had yesterday, and the day before we were hearing the word, "Wow, are you doing this? Wow, you're doing that? Wow!" So the story we're saying is amazing. And I think what we're trying to convey to the audience and everyone is there is a story in the last 18 months. We took the job back in July, we were working day and night to really put things into the future. Thinking about the economy, we're here to make changes. We here to look at to really diversify sustainable FDI investments. UAE has always been the US partner consecutively for the last 14 years. The number one partner of trade in the region. We want to continue that. We want to increase that. We want to put that in the map. We want to really help businesses to take forward from the UAE, anywhere into MENA, into Africa, into Asia. That's what the UAE is. That's the UAE always been for the last 50 years. And we want to keep in doing that.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (17:49)
We here to really talk and tell our story. And it's more of a fact-finding mission, as well. We want to understand what changed in the US, what's happening, what's really the new gig? What's the technology?
Danny Sebright: (17:58)
You need a few months for that.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (18:01)
Trying to put it with a very condensed structure of visits while the last three or four days, we learned a lot as well. And I think that's something which is very... I just learned a lot about anesthesia yesterday. So this is something which is really interesting.
Danny Sebright: (18:16)
Any thoughts from an FDI perspective-
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (18:18)
Yeah.
Danny Sebright: (18:18)
... the story you're trying to tell here?
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (18:19)
Well, to add to what his excellency was saying we're going from what we have done, and we're going to open doors, we're here with the business delegation as well, not only the representatives of governments. So we can explain the growth on those sectors which we are targeting. What's happening in those sectors, which for sure, we're going to add value to the states, as well as, to the UAE, and to the whole globe.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (18:41)
And if you allow me, Danny, I would like to just think of some details on some of the sectors which we're targeting. We're not targeting the conventional sectors because we know that they're going to be transformed drastically and they'd been pushed very hard by the pandemic and the crisis so they can move forward and make sure that they're going to continue living after the pandemic. But the sector in which we are targeting for sure, the e-commerce, and the retail. We saw a huge growth, we saw transformations, and this is going to be the game changer. Taking the SMEs, taking the exporters with them and they're in the market. Agri-business is something which very crucial. We saw the food security matters during the pandemic. And we saw how crucial and how important that the movements of the productions to be close to home.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (19:25)
The theater sector, which we're very pioneering is the health-wellness sector. We're talking about almost... The UAE is attracting around 70% of the whole region health-wellness businesses and our part of the world. And at the same time, the health sector in general and pharmaceutical is very huge, would be in a supplier to the whole region, through the storages, through the big warehouses that we have and big factories that we have in the UAE. And we will make sure that through our infrastructure, through our connection, through our investments abroad we're going to have this accessibility to everyone during any futuristic crisis.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (20:04)
Biotech, advance science are very key. Its very linked to our manufacturing and the industrial strategies. There's a huge push. We're targeting to invest around 300 billion dirhams for the upcoming 10 years in the industry and the manufacturing sector.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (20:22)
ICT is a game changer because we saw that transformation and applications and health sector and the e-commerce. So ICT is going to be embedded in most of the work which we're doing.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (20:30)
Supply chain. Supply chain is going to be a key and critical challenge to everyone. Through the containers, through the course of the shipments. So supply chain has to be looked at carefully and something which we've been managing very well during the pandemic. We're going to ensure that we do have very strong investments in this too, to make sure that we're bringing the crisis and not cause inflations within the country.
Danny Sebright: (20:53)
Before we leave the focus on the US, you have an amazing team here in the United States with your embassy in Washington, DC. Obviously, ambassador Al Otaiba, leads a wonderful team. Saud Al Nowais, your commercial counselor. You have a new consul general here in New York. You have consulates around the country. All of these folks are focused on helping Americans understand better, what is the UAE and what are the opportunities? So it's really important to shout them out and say a word about them.
Danny Sebright: (21:21)
When we look at other countries in the region, obviously, and again, in my meetings over the last two weeks when I was there, every American company is thinking about how they triangulate between statements that are coming out of Riyadh and Saudi Arabia in dealing with competition. American companies are worried about China and competition. Healthy competition is good for everyone. There's no question about that. See a few words about how Americans should think about their business place in the region vis-a-vis other countries there.
Danny Sebright: (21:58)
And then in the great power competition that's going on with China, there was obviously a lot said at this morning session. I think the national security session this morning, we talked about Afghanistan for five minutes, and then the rest of the session was spent talking about China and the US. How the US has to think about China for the future. So I'm just curious if you can add anything on those two issues.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (22:19)
Let me speak about what really I'm very expert about is trade supply chains. I think the trade supply chains, I always think about it as a miles and millions of miles of supply chain where they are as thick as one inch. So any stoppage to any supply chain, you have a problem globally. Post-COVID-19 today, every country and nations we're looking inwards and try to build manufacturing and establishing inwards kind of investments as well. But what we need to look at adjust global issue is the globalization's issue. How do we really look at the re-engineering supply chain overall the increase in prices of container-shipments today reached up to $15,000. How can we look at that and address that as a major issue. I really push this kind of thinking as well with my colleagues in the UAE and pushing it as well with my counterparty in the US as well, speaking about let's adjust this kind of issues.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (23:26)
These are problems of inflation. We're going to see them in the next months and next year. This is a challenge that will really face the world. And I think it's important to really understand how can we push the multilateral organization to re-think, can we engineer the supply chain and trade globally? This is something of our interest and UAE can really play a big role into it. We have a very strong infrastructure in logistics, in aviation. We can really play a role as well to reduce the prices, to really move and the mobility of containers and shipments across the globe. The UAE has always been a place where people meet and do business, whatever nationality you are, wherever country you come from. The UAE has a lot of tolerance and a lot of ability to really talk different languages, as well.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (24:20)
Let me add to what his excellency as well has said. When it comes to geo-politics, competition is always healthy and encouraging to move forward. And the competition within our region means that the volume of businesses and the economy growth is going to be higher, which means that our share in the spike is going to be much bigger than it used to be. So competition is always healthy, and we always encourage the competition.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (24:44)
So speaking about the geo-politics and especially the relation between US and China. We've been looking carefully on this, and there is always a winner and loser from such geopolitical tensions. I would say that some of the countries managed to win from this attentions like Mexico, which harvest many manufacturing, which moved from China, goes up to the states. So we have to look at those from even positive angle. How can we bring an added value to the work and to the economy production that we're doing.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (25:26)
Last point, which I want to raise as well. The economy has to be always at the front seat not the politics. The minute that the politics is at the front seat is going to slow down the economy. The minute that you have the economy, that's going to push the political agenda forward to the right way.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (25:47)
We're creating jobs in the industry-
Danny Sebright: (25:49)
Yes.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (25:50)
... in every way. So they're creating jobs, is the bottom line.
Danny Sebright: (25:52)
So this morning, again, on the national security panel, every one of the experts talked about maybe the future of the US-China competition, one aspect is to start moving some of the American companies moving some of their supply chain production and content from China to other places in the region. In conversations with the US government at a high level, this might be an opportunity for the UAE going forward. If US companies really do start doing that as a result of what's going on in our big power competition, as we call it for the future. You might be a winner in this have handled the right way, is what I'm trying to say.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (26:28)
Welcome to the UAE, already. I think what's important by this was I had a meeting with all the businesses people back in the UAE. One question is, I always sit down... When I sit with them is asking, "How can I improve your profitability by 10%?" It's not about what challenges you, it's not about what's the problem is. Its profit they want to make. And business people really speak about profitability, whatever it is, the questions to the audience, as well as to everyone. How can the UAE improve your profitability by 10% in the region? And that's something which really can push a lot of discussions and the challenges away.
Danny Sebright: (27:05)
With a billion and a half people coming into the middle-class in China, of course, the flip side is; China's a huge market that you, the United States, no country can ignore and has to take very seriously. And it's very important.
Danny Sebright: (27:18)
We have a couple of minutes left. I want to talk about that... You talked about everyone from the world coming to the UAE. I want to talk about the greatest show on earth that's going to open here on 1 October. Say a few words about Expo 2020, please. And what people are going to find there. I was out at the site last week when I was in the UAE and I can't wait. This is going to be amazing.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (27:40)
Expo is going to be really amazing. The Expo was ready last year. We are more ready than last year today and I think it's important. We already to receive the world. We're ready to see people face-to-face. I'm tired of the virtual calls and being behind screens. And I think its time for really showing up and being there, physically discussing, discussing a lot, conversing on so many ideas. There's so many things to see in the Expo 2020. And I think the world is ready, the UAE is ready to really host and Dubai is a place to be in October, till March. It's a great weather as well. So you're going to enjoy the beaches as well.
Danny Sebright: (28:20)
You want to add to that?
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (28:21)
We invite everyone to see the future, on the futuristic technologies. As his excellency said, we were ready since last year as the technology were on place in site. But we really invite up the ones who come and see on how come we take the UAE's technologies, ideas, and innovative ways of finding things. Pull and scale them up from the UAE to the whole globe.
Danny Sebright: (28:46)
Well, Saud and I, have been working on Expo for 10 years and with her Excellency Reema Al Hashmi. And I have to tell you, I just can't wait. It's going to be an amazing welcoming of the world to your country. So thank you for the hospitality that's about to come.
Danny Sebright: (29:03)
I asked you a question yesterday in Washington, and just very short, we have just a few seconds left. It's time to be positive about the future of the world coming out of this global pandemic. Tell me something positive you each say to your children about the future and when you talk to them at night at the dinner table.
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (29:21)
Well, my discussions, I think yesterday I was you telling, Danny, about when I seat with my nine year old daughter, and we all speak about the future. It's a challenge that we always try to convince a nine year old, at least what type of job they're going to hold 10 years from now. And I think that's something which is very important. The skill set is not the skill set today that is going to be there next 10 years. So trying to inspire them, trying to push that there is a lot of part for the youth to focus on. She wants to be a jewel maker. So she does a lot of jewelry and stuff, so she should be a designer and stuff. So she wants to be that. So, yeah, I'm pushing for that.
H.E. Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi: (30:02)
Two things. First one, they have to ensure that they are very well equipped to the quick changes that are happening on a daily basis. And the other thing is that they have to be a global citizen, as you rephrased yesterday very well. They should not stick to their technology. They have to go and meet people in person, and they have to do the balance. And we as politicians, we have to ensure that the infrastructure is there to do this balance.
Danny Sebright: (30:29)
Outstanding. And someone asked me to ask the question, you do tell them about Anthony Scaramucci and SALT, right?
H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri: (30:36)
Yeah, of course.
Danny Sebright: (30:36)
You talk to them about, Anthony, all the time. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining today. Thanks to our guests for joining.