A country that wants to grow must design its future – not wait for it

The new world in which we live today offers us the chance to unleash human capital in unprecedented ways. The National

The UAE was established on December 2, 1971. Five decades later, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) named the UAE’s National Day “The International Day of the Future". The soul of the UAE is defined by its focus on designing and pioneering the future.

Over the past 50 years, our world witnessed the fastest population growth in human history. The number of people living on our planet has grown from 3.8 billion in 1971 to 8 billion in 2022, with a majority of them in Asia and Africa. We have also witnessed the start of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – a leap in technology, from data and artificial intelligence to quantum computing and blockchains, which has affected our lives in multifaceted ways and will fundamentally re-shape our coming decade.

During those past five decades the world witnessed the rise of some countries and the failure of others. We saw, for instance, the growth of “Asian Tigers” such as South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, while other countries generally considered to be developed lagged behind and faced development challenges.

Studying these global experiences, we find that the key factors that differentiate those who succeed or fail are their ability to anticipate change, ensure readiness to deal with future challenges, quickly leverage rising opportunities and make the most of the technological revolution. For a country to grow and prosper, it must be able to design its future, rather than wait for it to happen.

The opening ceremony of Dubai's Museum of the Future in 2022. The UAE's accomplishments and rapid growth have been centred on the future and its design. Antonie Robertson / The National

The new world in which we live today offers us the chance to unleash human capital in unprecedented ways to create a better, more sustainable future. During the past 50 years, the UAE has risen to the global position it holds today. According to many international experts, there may be no country that better embodies the major trends that have driven global development over that time than the UAE.

Today, our country is a global economic capital, home to people from around 200 nationalities, including some of the best minds in the world. With some of the planet’s largest sovereign wealth funds, the UAE and its companies are at the forefront of global investment and trade. Emirates and Etihad Airways cover every corner of the world, and our airports are among the busiest and most active globally. Furthermore, we are one of the world's largest contributors of development assistance relative to gross national product.

All of these accomplishments, as well as our rapid growth, have been by design. We decided, from 1971 onwards, that we will not wait for the future to come – we will shape it, and be ready for it.

While there are multiple crises, we often forget that there are also many opportunities

The year 2023 began with the World Economic Forum, where experts and global leaders unanimously agreed we are living in a global environment characterised by “polycrises”, with supply chain disruptions, rising inflation, political instability, climate change effects and many other challenges occurring simultaneously.

While there are indeed multiple crises, we also see many opportunities. That is the UAE way, looking for new opportunities and being ahead of the curve. We see the core function of our government is to anticipate, prepare for and design the future; creating new economic models that maximise the advantages of technology towards building a better tomorrow for our society.

As we launch our World Government Summit, the world is facing accelerating challenges, but we see it also offering new and promising opportunities. Last month, we released the Future Opportunities Index to analyse future trends in a variety of fields such as the well-being economy, circular economy, advanced digital economy, biotechnology economy, carbon-neutral economy and the experience economy. Over the next decade, these sectors will grow at an accelerated rate, providing about $30 trillion in revenue to the global economy. This is the new economy, which will provide an ideal opportunity for further growth.

During the recovery phase of Covid-19 pandemic in 2021/2022, the UAE successfully staged Expo 2020, which attracted more than 25 million visitors. This year, the UAE will chair the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Cop28) and host the world so that we can take action to ensure a sustainable future for the planet. In a few months after that, we will host the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to shape the future of trade.

Throughout its development path, the UAE has embraced this future vision, striving to design the future and working on the international arena in a spirit of co-operation and partnership. Building a better future is an intrinsic part of our culture and our values, something at which the UAE truly excels, and that will continue to be our core competitive advantage.