Abu Dhabi in Perspective Cultivating Growth, Opportunity and Community

[Music] thank you thank you everyone for joining us uh and I'm sure this session is going to be a very interesting and very informative one with his Excellency Mr harb Al Mahi so Abu Dhabi is the capital of capital and it is at the cusp of transforming into a knowledge-based economy driven by innovation and Technology by touching on livability Health Care education community building and so much more this discussion will delve into the factors that are shaping Abu dhabi's identity as a global City now after your excellency's uh permission I'd like to give the audience a bit of background about Ado's work just so you have a bit of background about the importance of this office so adio aims to make Abu Dhabi a longterm home for all residents and investors by understanding their needs and enhancing the quality of life in the Emirates through recommended policy changes by attracting top talent investors and their families Ado's mission is to grow the economy and communities of Abu Dhabi so I want to give you a few numbers about the economy of Abu Dhabi so you can grasp the importance of this conversation as well so the Emirates gross domestic product grew by an annualized 4.1% in the second quarter of this year Abu D's GDP value for Q2 in 2024 reached a new record surpassing 297 billion Dirhams for the first six months of this year Abu dhabi's economy recorded a 3.7% increase on an annual basis so your Excellency these are very impressive numbers here and my first first question to you is how much of this in your view is um due to the Emirates attracting top talent investors and their families in the past year so first of all I want to say thank you for hosting this uh this session um it's my pleasure honestly to tell you how we've been attracting not only investor and talent but also family officers uh who would like to expand their business or even moving the entire business to Abu Dhabi um uh to answer your question um talking about Talent versus the entire developments happening in Abu Dhabi through different um different um uh clusters I give you example now when we talk about education by having the first um AI University in Abu Dhabi uh she Muhammad M Zed University um and also to have a CLE Cleland Clinic hospital in the health care sector let give um the right signal for all talents who wants to develop skills or uh to find the right home for them it cannot be better than than Abu Dhabi and I'm not trying to say this just as a marketing um uh purpose but it's it's a fact just around you uh if you see the hospitals the universities today um uh Abu Dhabi um has all the education uh system if it's a British if it's uh American including also uh Russian uh schools uh we have French schools so all that contribute to environment where it can be very attractive for all the segments not only talent to be part of this city yes your Excellency you mentioned Abu dhabi's world class infrastructure there's also a healthy employment market and tax-free income policy so my next question to you is how does adio support Abu dhabi's appeal as a prime destination for entrepreneurs startups family offices and investors see um if I was in this panel uh five years ago I will try to explain and position abui uh to say uh why Abu Dhabi but today honestly the if I allow me to say the argument today or positioning Abu Dhabi it's became completely different um the the question today why not Abu um um meeting different um um uh investors from different countries um talking about the livability um standards Abu Dhabi um reached today um it can be very attractive for all all the segments uh we were talking about safety we were talking about tax we were talking but today if you put all this in one in one uh basket it will be the right environment for investors um my next question is also pertaining to adio what are the key initiatives in your view that have driven Abu dhabi's push to becoming a key player in global trade and how does this position benefit entrepreneurs and and startups and by that I mean it's not only about bringing investors family offices and top talents but keeping them here so what are some of the key initiatives that are happening that are um keeping these talents in the emirat um may may I ask how many of you uh try to open a new business outside his country or outside his region can you raise hand uh that's that's good number um I'm sure the first question comes to your mind now opening I mean expanding your business outside your comfort zone your your country it's a bit challenging uh the first question could come who can give me the right information about the sector I'm going to invest let me say in lby I don't want to miss menion any other country um who will help me to meet the right entities or the right uh investors who will help me to find me the right business partner or investor partner um and this is only in one side the other side um I'm sure you will be thinking of how I'm going to move my staff there will they like the environment there uh am I get I'm I'm am I going to get the right uh staff and uh talent to support me to grow my business on the city I'm looking to establish my business there so all the questions I put on the table here it will be from our side so in ad you today we established um a department who can provide you all the information you need who can provide you uh or even arrange for you all the meetings you need to have with different entities today um in my office we've been dealing or we have more than 230 Partners from government semi-government and U uh private sector as well so our objective here we want you to expand your business move to Abu Dhabi with peace of mind that's only one side can you imagine and sorry for all the ladies here but can you imagine today when you come home after a long day and your wife telling you I couldn't find the right school for my kids I'm sure you will start thinking that to move to another country we do that as well so once you establish your your business in Abu Dhabi I have a team who will give you even the different options for your uh for your kids at school so basically what I'm trying to say here I won't call it even investor Journey because we call it investor experience uh in Abu Dhabi um we are taking um we are going through this experience with the investor a step by step uh we are paying attention for the human uh part of it uh just to make the investor move to Abu Dhabi with peace of mind yeah you've spoken about a lot of these factors including education including um uh livability I want to talk more about livability so Abu Dhabi is positioned as the world's safest city for five consecutive years but as I said let's talk about livability how has adio worked on making Abu Dhabi an attractive livable City for investors and family offices I will go back to the comment I mentioned um the investor experience um which we are um we designed for the international investors and family offices always we are we we make sure that when we invite investor to Abu Dhabi to show them the two different uh element of um livability in Abu Dhabi the business and uh the entertainment as well um promoting abudhabi as um one city or one environment which can cover um all the requirement for family offices and um investors it's it's a key for us so that that's one side but also on the same time um after having the investor establishing his or her business in Abu Dhabi we keep the engagement uh with them we keep um um um um the engagement to understand the experience of so far um let me say if he or she feel there is an a policy needs to be enhanced or changed so we will be behind them so we are not the entity who will attract the investor and engage them with the right entity and leave them alone so always will be behind them to offer them end to endend uh um uh service by offering all or covering all the steps and being behind the investor um all the time that help us to understand the investor requirement if it's related to livability if it's related to policy or even um uh to Benchmark his experience with the other country experience so that's help a lot to improve livability in Abu Dhabi especially that Abu Dhabi today um has more than more than 200 nationalities so that's helped a lot have you found in your experience that investors that are coming in are more concerned or more um giving more importance to livability business environment or something else I think people would would want to know that or all of the above is there one specific thing that people coming from abroad want to make sure that is lenient is available and is easy to deal with I think I I think livability uh business environment and safety all of them equal uh today as a businessman while you are um doing your business in the office you need to make sure that your kids uh in the safe environment you need to make sure that your wife and your family enjoying the time on this city even for yourself I mean weekend you want to enjoy the time here so livability safety and business environment it's it's equal are there certain metrics where you um you know you're you're acquiring talents and investors from abroad are there certain um individuals let's say or businesses that you are aiming for or is it a matter of creating this environment Abu Dhabi and they will come either way so to answer your question let me tell you a little bit about um our mandate and what what we are doing um in AIO uh we are not only in charge of enhancing the investor experience but personally also um I have number of project uh which we are managing for the government so investor uh experience it's one thing but also we do work closely with the tourism Department uh in a program called tourism development uh program so basically um the tourism Department mandate to attract um uh tourists but this program mandate uh to attract certain initiatives to Abu Dhabi for example helping Abu Dhabi airport to attract certain Airline helping DCT or tourism Department to attract certain brands Hotel Brands Boutique Brands um helping uh the private sector to attract certain FNB uh program so this is one project the other project also I as I mentioned um uh the family uh offices and ultra high network uh as you know everybody we've been talking about attracting family offices and ultra high networ to their cities so this is one of the key projects we are running uh currently um where we came up with uh 13 initiatives under this project uh for example to attract family offices you need to build you need to have the right environment for for them so currently we are talking to seven brands for a private clubs we are talking to six brands for boarding schools also we are talking to the local banks to um uh make sure their private banking aligned with the expectation of the family offices who's going to expand their business here because at the end of the day it's abudhabi reputation um uh also so one of the initiatives under uh this project the wealth Institute currently we are talking to the top three wealth Institute in the world not just to bring it as a brand but also to bring the entire system in uh abudhabi um also the third project uh we are running uh the regional development with um uh related entities in Abu Dhabi as you know Abu Dhabi as Emirates it's more than 7 5% from UAE um uh uh space so um which has three different cities so we have Abu Dhabi City AL Andra also we are in being tasked to develop Al and region to be one of the cities to attract either factories uh industrial or even tourists so if I put everything I mentioned in one um uh basket it will show that we are trying to build the right business community in Abu Dhabi which is completely new here so this is the the community which everyone would like to be part off yes for sure and it's it's a very big mandate and I think it's a very big uh responsibility my next uh question would be it it seems like there's a lot of projects ongoing and a lot of you know bringing in these top talents and Investments do you see that you have reached and of course the amount can grow and grow because it's still an ongoing uh work but has it reached a a good amount of talent and investors that are coming in or is your outlook for the future to bring in more and more uh Talent um see Talent is the future and um as I mentioned previously by having uh the top universities here uh that's a good signal to drive talent but also in the same time through my colleague in abudhabi investment office we've been um identifying 13 clusters to focus on um one of the sectors for example which we announced three already but one of the sectors as an example um the agriculture now when if I take one of the each cluster we been ident ify we went through it in in more details uh we identify the number of talent they mean they need to be attracted to Abu Dhabi from which country from which city from which university so to answer your question we have a clear road map um um um by driving uh or attracting investor and talent to Abu Dhabi I keep saying uh even in my interview this morning um personally I've been a bit picky when it comes to investor attraction I don't want everyone to come here to invest but I want to have the investor who is ready to contribute to ababi non oil GDP so that that's one and also who is willing to work closely with the other investors who's been attracted to to Abu Dhabi so to focus on certain sector certain um um uh investment um uh amount this is this is our goal here you mentioned three sectors that are being focused on one of them is agriculture can you let us know the other sectors that are being focused on to bring in those investors have you have you I'm not sure how many of you living here but have you seen the um uh one of them I mean Savi for example and I will give you example um six seven months ago um it was the first um passenger drone being tested in Al City I'm sure I'm I'm not sure if you seen or you hear that 40 minutes flying around the area that's a big achievement and hopefully within end of uh next year or beginning of 20206 you will see the first uh um taxi in in Abu Dhabi uh agriculture we we talked um uh we talked about it um and very soon we are going to announce another too um um it's give you very clear message that we are very focused when it come it comes to Abu Dhabi needs and what do we need from our um um investor to invest in thank you Excellency for my last question uh I have to ask about looking ahead where do you see Abu Dhabi in the next 10 to 15 years and how will it continue to evolve as a hub for growth opportunity and community in your view uh seeing ababi um if you see ababi today ababi been divided to different uh different zones um um who is Who Wants to be a part of the success story of Abu Dhabi my advice to invest in Abu Dhabi today otherwise after five years you will be just one of many so this is one second if you see Abu Dhabi divided to different zones um uh and I will take the financial districts as adgm um where we are in today uh where you see different hotels being connected to a shopping mall to hospital to residential um uh area this give you you a clear um um strategy Abu Dhabi is going through and mapping as well where ababi is going by mentioning all these clusters um uh the Drone taxi um uh focusing on specific investment opportunity um it will abui it will not be less than any top cities uh today I mean without mentioning uh names but my advice would be if you take if you take your business really serious you shouldn't miss the opportunity to invest in Abu Dhabi today your Excellency thank you for those great ending words and very insightful and informative session about the future of Abu Dhabi the investment landscape and adu's super work thank you very much Mr harb El maheri thank you [Music]