Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Mohamed Al Mubarak

Transcript

Mohamed Al Mubarak · The David Rubenstein Show

0:02
Speaker 1: People who want to see great art often go to
0:05
Speaker 1: the Louver in Paris, but now there's another Louver. It's
0:07
Speaker 1: an Abu Dhabi and it's about to be a Guggenheim
0:09
Speaker 1: in Abu Dhabi as well. Who's behind building these museums
0:12
Speaker 1: and other cultural attractions in Abu Dhabi. It's Mohammed al Mubark.
0:16
Speaker 1: He's the chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism
0:19
Speaker 1: in Abu Dhabi, and I sat down with him recently
0:21
Speaker 1: in his office to talk about why Abu Dhabi wants
0:24
Speaker 1: to be a major cultural center and tourist attraction For
0:28
Speaker 1: those people who aren't familiar with Abu Dhabi. Where is
0:30
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi.
0:31
Speaker 2: So, Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Emirates.
0:35
Speaker 2: It sits in the Arabian Peninsula. We are a connecting
0:40
Speaker 2: point between east and West from present day and throughout
0:43
Speaker 2: our history.
0:44
Speaker 1: The other major city that people know in UAE is Dubai, Yes, sir,
0:50
Speaker 1: and so Dubai and Abu Dhabi have attracted a lot
0:53
Speaker 1: of attention in recent years because they have a fair
0:55
Speaker 1: amount of wealth and a lot of tourism attractions. So
0:58
Speaker 1: let's just talk about at the beginning what your main
1:01
Speaker 1: mission is as the Minister of Culture and Tourism. What
1:03
Speaker 1: are you supposed to be doing in that role?
1:05
Speaker 2: And I think what makes this job very interesting is
1:09
Speaker 2: the passion it instills in myself and all of my colleagues.
1:14
Speaker 2: We have something quite special here in Abbi and then
1:17
Speaker 2: of that Emirates. What's special is that the continuous pursuit
1:20
Speaker 2: of the enhancement of quality of life. And that's not
1:23
Speaker 2: just for tourists, for the residents, it's for the amorates
1:26
Speaker 2: living here. We continuously work hand in hand with all
1:29
Speaker 2: our colleagues and our partners to create experiences to cater
1:32
Speaker 2: to their needs. So as you can see in Ablebi
1:35
Speaker 2: and in the UEE, almost every single year there's addition
1:38
Speaker 2: of experiences. There's addition of institutions, editions of new concepts
1:43
Speaker 2: that come in and create these fantastic curated experiences for
1:49
Speaker 2: people to really chair, USh and enjoy.
1:51
Speaker 1: What is the population of Abu Dhabi, So the.
1:53
Speaker 2: Population of the ue slightly over eleven million people.
1:56
Speaker 1: And Abu Dhabi is a fraction of that.
1:59
Speaker 2: Yes, it's the largest land bank, as I said, the
2:01
Speaker 2: capital city. You know, we're a little over three and
2:04
Speaker 2: a half million people.
2:05
Speaker 1: Your position is to make sure that people come here
2:08
Speaker 1: and understand what the attractions are of Abu Dhabi. But
2:11
Speaker 1: you're building a lot of things. So how long have
2:14
Speaker 1: you been in this position?
2:15
Speaker 2: So I've been at Aldaar for twenty years and at
2:20
Speaker 2: the Department of Culture and Tourism close to ten years.
2:22
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm very humbled and lucky to be
2:26
Speaker 2: working for a government that has visionary ideas. Their vision
2:32
Speaker 2: of investing in culture and culture institutions have not just
2:35
Speaker 2: been set forth in recent modern times, but from the
2:38
Speaker 2: inception of this country the idea of basically enhancing it
2:42
Speaker 2: with entertainment projects, projects that are theme parks, projects that
2:47
Speaker 2: are public parks, beaches, etc. Has always continuously evolved through
2:51
Speaker 2: the development of the UE.
2:52
Speaker 1: And for those who are not familiar with Abu Dhabi,
2:55
Speaker 1: when did it become as part of the UAA and
2:57
Speaker 1: independent country?
2:58
Speaker 2: So as a country, it's nineteen seventy one, but its
3:02
Speaker 2: history and the history of its people have dated back
3:04
Speaker 2: for thousands of years.
3:06
Speaker 1: And the founder of the country was shak Zayed.
3:09
Speaker 2: Yes the late founder of the country, the late father
3:11
Speaker 2: Shazaied and Hayan. He was a visionary man through his vision,
3:16
Speaker 2: you see this country being created that caters to the
3:19
Speaker 2: wants and needs of its people. And you know it's
3:22
Speaker 2: been His story is continued on by his son, the
3:25
Speaker 2: current president, His Highness Chahamed Benzaid.
3:28
Speaker 1: When was oil discovered in Abu Aabi?
3:31
Speaker 2: So oil was discovered prior to the formation of the country.
3:36
Speaker 2: It was discovered, and when it was discovered, it was
3:39
Speaker 2: thought of how am I going to utilize this natural resources?
3:42
Speaker 2: Like we've always utilized our natural resources to find value,
3:46
Speaker 2: to create value for our people, I sue.
3:48
Speaker 1: But before oil was discovered, the main business in this
3:51
Speaker 1: part of the world er Abu Dhabi was what.
3:54
Speaker 2: You know, through time, we've always utilized our natural resources,
3:57
Speaker 2: whether it's pearls, whether it's copper. You know, we've always
4:01
Speaker 2: been a trade partner. You know, our ancient trade routes,
4:04
Speaker 2: whether it's we're ancient Mesopotamia to ancient China, We've always
4:08
Speaker 2: traded natural resources throughout time. We've always utilized that. And
4:13
Speaker 2: just like we've utilized oil, the next step is utilizing
4:15
Speaker 2: the most important natural resources, which is us people, human beings.
4:20
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some of the museums you're building or
4:22
Speaker 1: have already built. So when I want to go see
4:25
Speaker 1: the Louver, I usually go to Paris. But now I
4:28
Speaker 1: found out you have your own Louver, just that connected
4:31
Speaker 1: to the one in Paris.
4:32
Speaker 2: By name, but not by curatorial intent or by misography.
4:37
Speaker 2: So the louver Able of course, is in partnership with
4:40
Speaker 2: the Louver Paris, as in partnership with AFM, which is
4:43
Speaker 2: the Asian France Museums. That partnership is a long standing
4:46
Speaker 2: partnership that continues to flourishes. In that partnership, there is
4:50
Speaker 2: a there is a transfer of knowledge that's being transferred
4:54
Speaker 2: to on a daily basis. There's loans that come from
4:57
Speaker 2: the different French museums. That's compounded with the acquisitions that
5:00
Speaker 2: we acquire for our assets and with the team building
5:03
Speaker 2: that we have created from the opening of this museum.
5:05
Speaker 1: They lend you some things from time to time and
5:07
Speaker 1: you lend them something absolutely so are they going to
5:10
Speaker 1: lend them on a leasha anytime soon?
5:12
Speaker 2: Maybe? Maybe? You know. Currently we have a one of
5:16
Speaker 2: the most beautiful paintings in our museums and at the
5:18
Speaker 2: Louver is Da Vinci's John the Baptist, and it's quite
5:22
Speaker 2: beautiful because the way we have the musography of the
5:26
Speaker 2: Louver Abby is quite interesting because it gives you a
5:29
Speaker 2: one to one view of everything you're looking at, whether
5:32
Speaker 2: it's a painting, whether it's an artifact. It is very
5:35
Speaker 2: sort of inept in creating a passionate interaction with what
5:38
Speaker 2: you're looking at.
5:39
Speaker 1: We're building another art museum of the Gugenheim. Now Louver's
5:44
Speaker 1: big enough. Why do you need a Googenheim as well
5:46
Speaker 1: right next door?
5:47
Speaker 2: I think it's a great question. It's I think the
5:49
Speaker 2: beautiful thing about the Ue and Abodabi is we live
5:52
Speaker 2: with over two hundred nationalities and in doing so, they
5:55
Speaker 2: have become a part of the countries and the city's fabric,
5:59
Speaker 2: and we need to celebrate that. So we need to
6:01
Speaker 2: celebrate everybody's identity, everybody's background, everybody's heritage, everybody's history. And
6:06
Speaker 2: what a beautiful way in doing so in these beautiful institutions.
6:09
Speaker 2: These museums are educational institutions and their community institutions. So
6:13
Speaker 2: we wanted to curate really a story where you come
6:16
Speaker 2: to saidiat cultural district and you, if you allow me
6:19
Speaker 2: to curate the story, you start off at the Natural
6:21
Speaker 2: History Museum, and at the Natural History Museum you get
6:24
Speaker 2: a glimpse and you get an understanding of how we
6:26
Speaker 2: came to be, how our earth came to be, how
6:28
Speaker 2: our universe came to be from a scientific perspective. Once
6:32
Speaker 2: you leave the Natural History Museum, you go to our
6:34
Speaker 2: national museum, the Chersaid National Museum. There you understand the
6:37
Speaker 2: history of this great land, not just the history of
6:39
Speaker 2: the country, but the people of this land that have
6:42
Speaker 2: been a part of this land for over three hundred
6:44
Speaker 2: thousand years. You get a glimpse of what the past
6:47
Speaker 2: and the present and the future looks like here in
6:49
Speaker 2: the Ue. From there you maneuver yourself to the Eluf
6:52
Speaker 2: of Abbababi, which is a beautiful universal museum. It is
6:56
Speaker 2: universal and stematic approach, so there you basically see a
7:00
Speaker 2: part of view on an equal pedestal with the entire world.
7:04
Speaker 2: Then you leave to the Guggenheim able By, which is
7:06
Speaker 2: a contemporary art museum focusing on art from the late
7:09
Speaker 2: nineteen forties to today, but it looks at it at
7:12
Speaker 2: a truly global perspective. So yes, you will see art
7:16
Speaker 2: from Pollock or Rothko or Bascia or Warhol, but it's
7:19
Speaker 2: going to be side by side by artists from Kenya
7:22
Speaker 2: from Nepal, from the Philippines and all over the world.
7:26
Speaker 2: We have taken it upon ourselves to make sure that
7:28
Speaker 2: art within the Gugenheim Abaab is showcased not just from
7:31
Speaker 2: a Western perspective, but a truly global South perspective.
7:34
Speaker 1: You're wanting to build a modern contemporary art museum, Why
7:37
Speaker 1: couldn't you just build one? Why did you have an
7:39
Speaker 1: affiliation or why do you have an affiliation with Gougenheim?
7:41
Speaker 1: What can they do for you?
7:42
Speaker 2: So some mixture of things similar to the loof first
7:45
Speaker 2: is a fantastic opportunity of transfer of knowledge, working side
7:48
Speaker 2: by side with that fantastic team at the Guggenheim in
7:50
Speaker 2: New York and at the Gougenheim Bilbao and working on
7:53
Speaker 2: how we can detail this museum together. Compounded by that,
7:57
Speaker 2: you know, you're taking years and blueprints of acquisition committees,
8:01
Speaker 2: of curatorial committees, musography committees, and you're taking them and
8:05
Speaker 2: then you're evolving them to your wants and to your needs.
8:08
Speaker 1: Museums are great, and I I'm involved with a number
8:10
Speaker 1: of museums myself the United States, but also there are
8:14
Speaker 1: performing arts parts of the cultural world. Are you involved
8:17
Speaker 1: in performing arts as well, absolutely. I mean Unesco designated
8:21
Speaker 1: as a city of Music. Music is very close to
8:23
Speaker 1: our heart.
8:24
Speaker 2: As I said, you know, when you live with over
8:25
Speaker 2: two other nationalities, they bring in their musical touches to
8:28
Speaker 2: the story. So you know, our events calendar is filled
8:32
Speaker 2: with music from everything from classical music to hip hop,
8:36
Speaker 2: to pop, to Korean pop to dance, and the list
8:39
Speaker 2: goes on. And you know since COVID, where the world
8:42
Speaker 2: told us people are not going to come to these
8:44
Speaker 2: live events, we have pretty much sold out every single
8:47
Speaker 2: live musical events catering for all demographics.
8:49
Speaker 1: That you build a facility for these as well, yes, sir, yes, sir.
8:53
Speaker 1: And let me ask you who is going to go
8:55
Speaker 1: to all these because your population is not that big.
8:58
Speaker 1: Do you have enough people that can fill up all
9:00
Speaker 1: these museums and performing arts arenas and so forth.
9:03
Speaker 2: So I think first and foremost is the why, as
9:07
Speaker 2: you rightfully said, why are we building these So when
9:09
Speaker 2: it comes to our cultural institutions, because we truly believe
9:12
Speaker 2: that culture is the backbone of any forward thinking society.
9:16
Speaker 2: Culture has to be embedded in our DNA like it's
9:18
Speaker 2: always has been, so they're not The institutions were not
9:21
Speaker 2: built for tourists, that are actually built for the residence
9:24
Speaker 2: here and for the future generations of residents here in
9:26
Speaker 2: Abbabi and the United Aldamirates. And of course then you
9:29
Speaker 2: have the tourism story. Last year we had little under
9:32
Speaker 2: five point three million tourists. We're looking to target this
9:34
Speaker 2: year a little bit over six million tourists.
9:36
Speaker 1: Where are your tourists principally coming from, really from all
9:39
Speaker 1: over the world.
9:39
Speaker 2: But I think if I'm going to look at five time,
9:42
Speaker 2: my top five destinations, you're looking at the Indian market,
9:45
Speaker 2: the Chinese market, the Russian market, the UK market, of course,
9:49
Speaker 2: the Western European markets, whether it's Germany or France. So
9:53
Speaker 2: they're really coming from everywhere.
9:54
Speaker 1: What about the Americans? Are they showing up?
9:56
Speaker 2: Absolutely so. We have seen a double digit growth of
9:58
Speaker 2: the last two years with American tours coming from the US.
10:00
Speaker 1: You know, I was chairman of the Smithsonian for a
10:02
Speaker 1: number of years, and very often when we had a
10:04
Speaker 1: popular museum attraction, we get calls who people wanted free tickets.
10:09
Speaker 1: Tickets are free, but they wanted access. If you ever
10:12
Speaker 1: get that kind of request.
10:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, the fact of the matter is,
10:15
Speaker 2: like I said, these museums are educational institutions. So first
10:17
Speaker 2: of all, all kids going for free, all military personnel
10:21
Speaker 2: going for free, anybody over the age of sixty goes
10:25
Speaker 2: in for free. And then anybody who's doing research gets
10:29
Speaker 2: a heavily subsidized aspect of their ticket. They also get
10:34
Speaker 2: the right to basically enter all our research labs. So,
10:37
Speaker 2: like I said, they are educational and community facilities. What
10:40
Speaker 2: about private equity people, they go on for free if
10:43
Speaker 2: they sponsor.
10:46
Speaker 1: So as we talk, there's a fair amount of turmoil
10:48
Speaker 1: in some parts of the Middle East, obviously, but what
10:52
Speaker 1: about this part of the Middle East? Is it affected
10:54
Speaker 1: by what's going on in Israel? And Gaza and Syria
10:58
Speaker 1: and Lebanon are not so affected?
11:01
Speaker 2: I think first and foremost, one thing that we all
11:03
Speaker 2: as human beings look for is peace and harmony. You know,
11:07
Speaker 2: nobody wants to see devastation happening anywhere around the world,
11:11
Speaker 2: regardless if it's next to you or not next to you.
11:13
Speaker 2: The United Emirates is home to two hundred nationalities from
11:16
Speaker 2: all over the world, different religions, different backgrounds, and the
11:20
Speaker 2: focus is really on how we keep our community safe
11:23
Speaker 2: and make sure that basically we work with entire diplomatic
11:27
Speaker 2: ties to make sure that we can find the solution
11:29
Speaker 2: that caters for the wants and needs of the overall
11:32
Speaker 2: world when it comes to peaceful coexistence.
11:34
Speaker 1: Now in the United States, there's a big concern about
11:37
Speaker 1: immigration into the country as a political issue. Yes, sir,
11:41
Speaker 1: here you have a lot of immigrants coming in. More
11:44
Speaker 1: immigrants live here than people from the native part of
11:47
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi. I assume is that a concern or is
11:49
Speaker 1: that not like a problem?
11:50
Speaker 2: Not a problem because the fact the matter is that
11:52
Speaker 2: we're still a developing country. We're still a developing city.
11:56
Speaker 2: Everything is done through a well thought of strategy. So
11:59
Speaker 2: it's not just basically let's open our doors and everybody
12:01
Speaker 2: come in. You know, you're looking for talent also, you
12:04
Speaker 2: know teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers. These are people that are
12:08
Speaker 2: flying in here that are helping us grow.
12:10
Speaker 1: So sometimes when populations grow quickly, you see a lot
12:13
Speaker 1: of crime. You have a lot of crime here.
12:17
Speaker 2: It is one of the safest cities in the world.
12:20
Speaker 2: One because there is a clear strategy and a plan
12:23
Speaker 2: for that. But two, everybody lives here, loves the way
12:26
Speaker 2: of life here. They want to sustain it. So everybody
12:29
Speaker 2: works hand in hand together to sustain that.
12:31
Speaker 1: In Europe and the United States, you often see in
12:34
Speaker 1: major cities homeless people. I haven't seen any here, but
12:37
Speaker 1: maybe there are some. There's homelessness a problem.
12:40
Speaker 2: So when it comes to the local population, and this
12:43
Speaker 2: is where I always go back and say, you know,
12:45
Speaker 2: the government continuously works on enhancing the quality of life
12:49
Speaker 2: of the residents and the locals of the United Emirates.
12:52
Speaker 2: So US as locals, you know, we have opportunities to
12:55
Speaker 2: get free land for our housing, So free housing, free
12:58
Speaker 2: medicare subzed power and water, and a job opportunity. So
13:04
Speaker 2: you are given the tools to succeed. What you do
13:07
Speaker 2: after these tools is really up to you.
13:09
Speaker 1: Let's talk about your own background. So where were you born.
13:12
Speaker 2: I was born in Paris, Paris, yes, Sir Paris friends,
13:15
Speaker 2: and moved back to Abby and grew up here. I
13:19
Speaker 2: had a fantastic upbringing. You know, the community society was
13:23
Speaker 2: just amazing to be a part of it, always seeing
13:27
Speaker 2: a sense of how leadership is so close to the people,
13:30
Speaker 2: on how it always wants to make sure that the
13:32
Speaker 2: people are comfortable and happy. You know, my mother did
13:35
Speaker 2: an amazing job with my siblings and myself. We're very
13:40
Speaker 2: close together. You know, my brother and my sisters were
13:42
Speaker 2: all a very tight knit family.
13:43
Speaker 1: How many shiplings do you have?
13:45
Speaker 2: So I have a older brother and two older sisters,
13:48
Speaker 2: so we're full of this.
13:49
Speaker 1: Older brother runs Mubarra, which is an investment or. Yes,
13:52
Speaker 1: Sir Abu Dhabie and your sisters are they involved in
13:56
Speaker 1: Abu Dhabi in some way like you are?
13:57
Speaker 2: So? My sister Razannel Mobarak, she works for the environmental
14:02
Speaker 2: agency here nobleb You know, she is an advocator of
14:05
Speaker 2: sustainability and safeguarding the environment. My other sister as a
14:10
Speaker 2: studied lawyer and right now she has probably a very
14:14
Speaker 2: important job which is focusing on her family.
14:18
Speaker 1: Now, your brother once told me that you have a
14:20
Speaker 1: big comic book collection. So you still collect that comic books?
14:25
Speaker 1: And what are you going to do with them?
14:26
Speaker 2: So I've I fell in love with comics at a
14:29
Speaker 2: very early age. You know, I grew up. I remember
14:32
Speaker 2: as early as I can. Every time I'd find a
14:36
Speaker 2: Superman comic, or a Batman comic, or an X Men comic,
14:40
Speaker 2: you know, whether it's DC or Marvel, I basically gobbled
14:43
Speaker 2: them up. I took them up, and I ran up
14:44
Speaker 2: to my room and I sat on my corner and
14:46
Speaker 2: I basically just I love the concept of creating something
14:50
Speaker 2: so imaginative, creating these worlds, you know, creating these characters
14:54
Speaker 2: that are actually so detailed, but they have so much
14:57
Speaker 2: weight to them, emotional weight to them. I love that,
15:00
Speaker 2: you know. I love the concept of storytelling. And that's
15:03
Speaker 2: what actually what my job's all about today. It's about storytelling.
15:06
Speaker 2: Whether it's curating museums with the Fantastic team, whether it's
15:10
Speaker 2: curating experiences in our theme parks, whether it's curating experiences,
15:14
Speaker 2: it's storytelling and itself.
15:15
Speaker 1: Finish your own story. Did you go to college in
15:18
Speaker 1: the United States or yes, sir.
15:20
Speaker 2: So, I went to college in Boston and Northeastern University.
15:23
Speaker 2: Amazing four years of my life.
15:25
Speaker 1: You know, I love study.
15:26
Speaker 2: I studied political science and economics. Did study museums, No,
15:30
Speaker 2: But I was I was always infactuated.
15:32
Speaker 1: So when you went to college in Boston, as you
15:35
Speaker 1: told people you were from Abu Dhabi, what did they say?
15:38
Speaker 1: So where it was?
15:40
Speaker 2: You know? I was lucky, you know, I went to
15:42
Speaker 2: university and I went to a place where you had
15:44
Speaker 2: a lot of international university kids from all over the world,
15:46
Speaker 2: so they knew where U is, they knew where Abbi was,
15:49
Speaker 2: but they had, you know, not a lot of information
15:53
Speaker 2: about it. The funny thing right now is every single
15:56
Speaker 2: student I went to school with has come to the
15:59
Speaker 2: Abbab And when they've come down here, they've called me
16:02
Speaker 2: and said, oh, you remember I was with you in
16:03
Speaker 2: freshman year, I was with you in sophomore years with
16:05
Speaker 2: here And I said, yeah, of course, remember, he said,
16:07
Speaker 2: you know we've come here. It is amazing. They ask
16:09
Speaker 2: you for free tickets to lover sometimes sometimes they do.
16:13
Speaker 2: Sometimes they do. You know, I don't give my professor's
16:15
Speaker 2: free tickets, but the students I do.
16:16
Speaker 1: If I'm just going to say to you, I'm going
16:18
Speaker 1: to leave the country in about an hour, I have
16:20
Speaker 1: to fly back to the United States. I've got an
16:22
Speaker 1: hour to visit something. What should I visit in my
16:24
Speaker 1: one hour?
16:25
Speaker 2: Due to our infrastructure? What I believe you can do
16:28
Speaker 2: in an hour? You being a cultural enthusiast, I would
16:33
Speaker 2: probably recommend you visit the Side Mosque. And you see,
16:37
Speaker 2: it's this beautiful mosque.
16:38
Speaker 1: And one of those gregious mosque in the world.
16:40
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and it's just it's architectural stunning. You get there,
16:44
Speaker 2: you get an understanding of this beautiful space. Maybe spend
16:47
Speaker 2: twenty minutes there, and then if you have an hour,
16:49
Speaker 2: and then it's a around eight to ten minute drive
16:53
Speaker 2: to Russell Husson, the oldest standing fort here in Abodabi.
16:57
Speaker 2: It's in the center of the city. You also get
16:59
Speaker 2: a view of the entire sort of city. Spend twenty
17:01
Speaker 2: minutes there and then you shoot out. Eight minutes later
17:04
Speaker 2: you're at the Louver Bladubby and then you're off the
17:06
Speaker 2: airport and currently at the Louverbadubby, we have an amazing
17:09
Speaker 2: post impressionist exhibition. If you get a chance, it's amazing,
17:12
Speaker 2: some amazing Van goghs. So you tick that box.
17:15
Speaker 1: You've had some NBA pre season games here, sir. Are
17:18
Speaker 1: you planning and bringing any NBA teams here permanently or
17:22
Speaker 1: just for pre season?
17:23
Speaker 2: Sports and itself brings people together regardless what your background.
17:26
Speaker 2: So we're big on sports entertainment.
17:28
Speaker 1: You know.
17:28
Speaker 2: We've started that the with Formula one in not just
17:32
Speaker 2: focusing on the sport itself, but creating musical experiences, food
17:36
Speaker 2: and beverage experiences, retail experiences, all engulfed over a weekend
17:40
Speaker 2: and the whole city basically celebrates Formula one. Then you
17:43
Speaker 2: took it to another step further where we took the
17:46
Speaker 2: engineering and the sports excellence component and we've embedded it
17:50
Speaker 2: within our school programs and our different educational programs. And
17:54
Speaker 2: it's because since we've started Formula one to where we
17:57
Speaker 2: are today now we have a strong of female drivers,
18:02
Speaker 2: male drivers racing in all aspects of racing within the
18:06
Speaker 2: UE and beyond. So it is really a long term
18:09
Speaker 2: partnership story with the sport itself. Same thing with UFC.
18:12
Speaker 2: We brought in UFC. Prior to the UFC investment, there
18:16
Speaker 2: was an investment in the sports ju jitsu. Jiu jitsu
18:18
Speaker 2: became a national sport and today we have over seven
18:21
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand jiu jitsu fighters here in the
18:25
Speaker 2: UE that have won global medals from all over the world.
18:28
Speaker 2: You can clearly see that we are investing not just
18:30
Speaker 2: in the sport, but in the infrastructure, both hard and soft.
18:32
Speaker 1: So Abu Dhabi is part of the UAE, is part
18:35
Speaker 1: of what's called the Golf Cooperation Council, which is a
18:38
Speaker 1: number of countries that are blessed with having some oil.
18:41
Speaker 1: I would say, most of them have a fair amount
18:43
Speaker 1: of oil. They include Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain.
18:49
Speaker 1: So are these other countries Shiella's saying, hey, don't bring
18:52
Speaker 1: all these tours just to your country, because we want
18:55
Speaker 1: to have some tours too, because they don't have anything
18:57
Speaker 1: quite like you have. Did they ever mention this to you?
19:00
Speaker 2: You know? On the contrary, you know, we've heard sort
19:03
Speaker 2: of press outside press talk about, for example, competitiveness between
19:06
Speaker 2: even Abadabi and Dubai. But the fact of the matter
19:09
Speaker 2: is is we all are complementary, similar to what we
19:12
Speaker 2: see in places like the US or even Europe, just
19:14
Speaker 2: because of the size of the US. But we will
19:16
Speaker 2: fly to the US, you know, their bucket list is
19:19
Speaker 2: to go to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans,
19:22
Speaker 2: and the list goes on. Same thing. In Europe, it's Paris,
19:25
Speaker 2: it's London, it's Rome, it's Milan, and the list goes on.
19:30
Speaker 2: When it comes to this region, like I said, it
19:33
Speaker 2: is widely connected, it is in close proximity to each other.
19:37
Speaker 2: So the tourists in reality will go to Dubai, Abbo, Dabi, Rial, Doha.
19:44
Speaker 2: So we're really all complimenting each other with different experiences.
19:47
Speaker 1: Let's talk about another side of your life, which is
19:50
Speaker 1: building hotels or refurbishing hotels or apartment buildings, residential and
19:56
Speaker 1: so forth. So this area has grown so much that
20:00
Speaker 1: it is seen at some parts people on the buy
20:02
Speaker 1: are saying that there's not enough residential properties anymore for
20:05
Speaker 1: people who want to live here and work here. Are
20:07
Speaker 1: you building more residential properties in Abu Dhabi? And it
20:10
Speaker 1: is just a real problem. Absolutely, it is a problem.
20:13
Speaker 1: It's a good problem to have.
20:14
Speaker 2: You know, you look at basically the growth story of
20:17
Speaker 2: a company like Aldar. You know, in two thousand and
20:20
Speaker 2: eight we were launching two to three developments a year.
20:24
Speaker 2: Fast forward to this year, I've launched fourteen new developments,
20:28
Speaker 2: so the scale is significantly larger. Our market cap has
20:32
Speaker 2: grown five folds, so.
20:34
Speaker 1: Your company is a publicly traded company.
20:36
Speaker 2: Yes, sir. One of the things that is you talk
20:37
Speaker 2: about the development aspect. So our development pipeline has grown
20:41
Speaker 2: eight folds. If you look at just from a numbers perspective,
20:44
Speaker 2: you know you're going to say, who's buying here? In
20:46
Speaker 2: twenty and twenty one, eleven percent of my portfolio we're
20:50
Speaker 2: international buyers twenty and twenty four close to thirty percent.
20:55
Speaker 2: And these buyers are coming from all over the world,
20:57
Speaker 2: predominantly coming from Southeast Asia, Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe.
21:03
Speaker 2: And you might say why now, Why is to me
21:06
Speaker 2: is a very easy is a very easy question, because
21:08
Speaker 2: they're coming to a place where there is, like I said,
21:11
Speaker 2: a continuous pursuit for quality of life. Are the safest
21:15
Speaker 2: cities in the world where safety comes first, Medicare comes first.
21:19
Speaker 2: The investment of government in education, medicare, infrastructure, public safety
21:25
Speaker 2: is always front of mind. It's a place where it
21:28
Speaker 2: is continuously evolving to create policies to cater for the
21:31
Speaker 2: needs of the investor, cater for the needs of the buyer,
21:35
Speaker 2: of the homeowner. You look at all of our sort
21:37
Speaker 2: of sovereign funds, the mobidelas, the IHCs, the adqs of
21:41
Speaker 2: this world, the ages of this world. Not only are
21:44
Speaker 2: they investing outside, but they're also investing within in very
21:47
Speaker 2: important sectors agritech ai, education, infrastructure, logistics. That is creating
21:53
Speaker 2: massive job opportunities in the UEE, and people from all
21:56
Speaker 2: over the world are taking these opportunities. So I almost
21:59
Speaker 2: look at the u today is a place that is
22:01
Speaker 2: the land of opportunity.
22:03
Speaker 1: People are coming here and they're buying apartments. You don't
22:06
Speaker 1: have to be a citizen of Abu Dhabi to buy
22:08
Speaker 1: an apartment, no, sir. And when you buy a part
22:10
Speaker 1: in an apartment here, can you become a citizen here
22:13
Speaker 1: or how hard it is to be a citizen or
22:14
Speaker 1: you don't need to be a citizen to live here, So.
22:17
Speaker 2: You don't need to be a citizen to live here.
22:18
Speaker 2: In terms of your acquisitions, there's new policies that have
22:21
Speaker 2: been added, so long term residencies, golden visas for you
22:25
Speaker 2: and for the entire family household, short term residency visas,
22:29
Speaker 2: and also at the same time there's opportunities for nationalization.
22:32
Speaker 1: You have no plans do something else in government or
22:35
Speaker 1: you're going to stay in the private sector completely. At
22:37
Speaker 1: some point, what is your future?
22:39
Speaker 2: The future reallylies on the idea that we have to stop.
22:43
Speaker 2: We don't have to stop. We have to continuously evolve,
22:45
Speaker 2: we have to continuously be better. We have to continuously
22:49
Speaker 2: cater to the needs of what our future generation wants.
22:52
Speaker 2: And that's what makes the job special because you're always
22:54
Speaker 2: thinking about the future. This is what makes the ue
22:56
Speaker 2: special is what's next for us.
22:58
Speaker 1: Let's suppose you were to summarize what you would like
23:01
Speaker 1: the average person in the world to know about Abu Dhabi.
23:04
Speaker 1: What would you say is the message you want to
23:06
Speaker 1: convey to people about this country.
23:07
Speaker 2: Seeing is believing, you know. The fact of the matter is,
23:11
Speaker 2: I think we hear a lot of things, but in reality,
23:14
Speaker 2: you know, take a step further, you know, do your
23:16
Speaker 2: research and come because once you see what's happening here,
23:20
Speaker 2: it is very very special. It's a place that is
23:23
Speaker 2: really a place of belonging, a place of connectivity, a
23:28
Speaker 2: place of understanding. And everything we are doing is for
23:33
Speaker 2: the next generation and thenjration after that, So I would
23:37
Speaker 2: love for everybody is to be a part of that
23:39
Speaker 2: with us.
23:41
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
23:43
Speaker 1: can subscribe and download my podcast on Spotify, Apple, or
23:47
Speaker 1: wherever you listen.