A decade of leadership: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and the rise of Dubai

Sheikh Mohammed, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, celebrates 50 years of government service during a Cabinet meeting in January 2019. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed is shown a scale model of the Dubai Air City project in January 2019. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed reviews a Sky Pod model being tested by Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority, in February 2019.

Sheikh Mohammed with Hadeel Anwar, winner of the 2018 Arab Reading Challenge. Photo: Wam 

Sheikh Mohammed at the launch of the UAE Cultural Development Fund and Creative Industries Contributions Index at Louvre Abu Dhabi in February 2018. Wam

The UAE Vice President has taken a particular interest in developing the talent of young people. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, receive Chinese President Xi Jinping in Abu Dhabi in July 2018. Photo: Crown Prince Court - Abu Dhabi

Sheikh Mohammed inspects progress at the Shindagha Heritage District project in March 2018. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed welcome Pope Francis at the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi in February 2019. Reuters

Sheikh Mohammed chairs an annual brainstorming session with his team at Emirates Towers, Dubai, in September 2018. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed award Saif Al Mansoori from Abu Dhabi with the UAE Pioneers Award for charitable work, in November 2017. Pawan Singh / The National

Sheikh Mohammed inspects the design for the main Expo station, which is modelled after the wings of a plane, in October 2017. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed has urged Arab youths to evolve, adapt and keep pace with a transforming world. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed inaugurates the second phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in March 2017. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed approves the second phase of the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan in December 2022. Photo: Dubai Media Office

Sheikh Mohammed holds talks with Mohammad Yaqoob, Afghanistan's acting Minister of Defence, in December 2022. Photo: Wam

Sheikh Mohammed meets Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, Ruler of Ajman, in December 2022. Photo: Dubai Media Office

Sheikh Mohammed arrives in Ajman to chair a meeting of the Council of Ministers, in December 2022. Photo: @HHShkMohd / Twitter

President Sheikh Mohamed; Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai; Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah; Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Ruler of Fujairah; Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah; and Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, Ruler of Ajman, watch the 51st UAE National Day show at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Photo: UAE Presidential Court

Sheikh Mohammed opens a Federal National Council session in November 2022. Photo: Dubai Media Office

Sheikh Mohammed said the council represented the UAE's commitment to promoting 'consensus, consultation and co-operation'. Photo: Dubai Media Office

Sheikh Mohammed arrives at his majlis at Zabeel Palace, accompanied by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Dubai Crown Prince; Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Deputy Ruler of Dubai; Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed, chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation and chief executive of Emirates airline and group, and other officials, in Dubai, in November 2022. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed with Sham Bakour, 7, a Syrian schoolgirl who was crowned Arab Reading Challenge champion in Dubai. Sham survived a deadly missile attack during the civil war in her country. Ruel Pableo for The National

Sheikh Mohammed is greeted by Algerian Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane after he arrived in Algeria to attend the Arab League Summit in November 2022. Photo: Dubai Media Office

Sheikh Mohammed meets Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in Cairo, in October 2022. Photo: Dubai Media Office

Sheikh Mohammed welcomes Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi at Zabeel Palace in October 2022. Photo: Dubai Media Office

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid at an event in August 2022. Photo: Dubai Media Office

Sheikh Mohammed inaugurates a book-shaped library worth Dh1 billion in June 2022. Photo: HHShkMohd / Twitter

Sheikh Mohammed leads Eid Al Adha prayers at the Sheikh Rashid Mosque in Dubai. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed welcomes President Sheikh Khalifa on his return to Al Ain in January 2013 after a private visit to Pakistan. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed at Qasr Al Hosn, in Abu Dhabi, in February 2014. Photo: Crown Prince Court - Abu Dhabi

Sheikh Mohammed with US President George W Bush at Camp David, Maryland, in August 2008. AFP

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Britain's Queen Elizabeth and her husband Prince Philip arrive at a ceremony to unveil the design of the new Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi, in November 2010. They are accompanied by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation. EPA

Sheikh Mohammed with his racehorse Rewilding after the four-year-old thoroughbred won the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June 2011. Photo: racingfotos.com

The Vice President at the World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky, in September 2010. Reuters

Sheikh Mohammed and former US president Bill Clinton pose for a picture with Nancie Atwell, a teacher from Southport, Maine, after she won the $1 million Global Teacher Prize in Dubai, in March 2015. AP

Sheikh Mohammed looks at plans for Al Ittihad Bridge in Dubai. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid talks to children at the inauguration of Al Jalila Child Culture Centre in Dubai, in December 2014. Wam

Sheikh Mohammed inaugurates the Dubai Metro Green Line in September 2011. AFP

Sheikh Mohammed and Prince Salman bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister of Defence, greet military personnel who took part in a joint UAE-Egypt military exercise in Al Gharbia in March 2014. Photo: Crown Prince Court - Abu Dhabi

In the 10 years that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid has been Ruler of Dubai, the emirate has not only defied a global economic crisis, but emerged from it bigger, better, stronger, smarter – and happier.

It was less than a year after his accession as Ruler of Dubai that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid gave an extensive interview to Al Ittihad newspaper on the 35th National Day.

The UAE, said Sheikh Mohammed in December 2006, “is the embodiment of confronting difficulties, overcoming obstacles and conquering the impossible”.

Ten years later, on the anniversary of his accession, it is a statement of faith that holds true.

It is also the case that the achievements of Sheikh Mohammed and the mark he has made cannot be contained by just the past 10 years.

During the 1970s, Sheikh Mohammed was both head of the Dubai Defence Force and Minister of Defence. He was instrumental in the creation of Emirates airline in 1985 and, as Crown Prince, launched the landmark Burj Al Arab hotel in 1999 and instigated the construction of the Palm Jumeirah in 2001.

Those last three are now potent symbols of Dubai as a world city, as is the Burj Khalifa which, in the first four years of his rule, rose from a concrete stump to become the tallest building in the world.

Concrete, steel and glass are certainly some measure of his achievements.

The Dubai of 2015 transports its population on a modern metro network, and welcomes its millions of visitors through the world’s busiest international airport and on to an unrivalled collection of luxury hotels.

The city has become a home and a haven for hundreds of thousands in a part of the world that is increasingly uncertain and unstable; it offers prosperity, security and tolerance as much around it slips towards chaos.

Enterprise in all areas is encouraged and rewarded. As a result, since 2006, the emirate’s population has grown from 1.4 million to nearly 2.5 million.

This is not the result of a simple economic calculation of the benefits from growth to the country’s economy. Sheikh Mohammed has always understood why prosperity is so important.

In his 2013 book, Flashes of Thought, he wrote: “Our region is home to more than 200 million young people. We have the opportunity to inspire them with hope and to direct their energies towards improving their lives and the lives of those around them. If we fail, we will abandon them to emptiness, unemployment and the malicious ideologies of terrorism.”

This understanding of the bigger picture is a hallmark of Sheikh Mohammed, both as Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE. He has a clear understanding of the responsibilities and duties of leadership.

“A true leader does not derive power from his position,” he wrote in Flashes of Thought, “but from his ethics, from people’s love for him, and from his knowledge, education and excellence in his field of work.”

It is a philosophy of leadership that runs through the DNA of his first 10 years as Ruler. He is a visible presence both at home and abroad, from the winners’ enclosure at Britain’s Royal Ascot horse racing festival (one of his great passions) to answering questions live for listeners on local radio, to his Twitter feed that now tops 5.3 million followers.

Social media is an example of his embrace of the modern world. He speaks frequently of his vision to make Dubai the Arab world’s first Smart City, where every aspect of life is interconnected in a way that improves life for all, from traffic lights controlled by a single control centre, to a host of services from booking a taxi or paying a utility bill from the screen of a smartphone.

It is also at the core of Vision 2021, unveiled a year ago by Sheikh Mohammed as Prime Minister. In six years, the golden jubilee of the UAE Vision 2021 establishes an agenda of national priorities that include world-class health and education and a knowledge-based economy expressed in a spectacular space mission that will make the UAE the first Arab country to send a probe to Mars.

All of this involves risk to some degree. In 2009, the global economic downturn produced an economic crisis that some international observers doubted Dubai could survive.

That it weathered the storm is another defining chapter of Sheikh Mohammed’s leadership, expressed in two more quotes from Flashes of Thought: “To take risk and fail is not a failure. Real failure is to fear taking any risk”, and “An easy life does not make men, nor does it build nations. Challenges make men, and it is these men who build nations”.

It is the nature of Sheikh Mohammed’s achievements that to understand them it is as important to look forward as to look back on the past 10 years. Two years ago, the country celebrated as Dubai won the right to host Expo 2020, an international event which Sheikh Mohammed promises will “astonish the world”.

By then, the Business Bay Canal will have been completed, connecting Dubai Creek to Jumeirah with a new park featuring a lagoon and man-made beach. This year three new theme parks will open – Legoland, the Hollywood-themed Motiongate and Bollywood Parks.

If all of this can be distilled to a single word for Sheikh Mohammed’s vision, it would be happiness. As he puts it: “Good governance is about nothing more or less than creating happiness. It really is that simple.”