The UAE: A Model for Crisis Management and Opportunities
The COVID-19 pandemic crisis has, since its emergence at the end of 2019 and up until now, revealed this clearly. It has shown that countries with a strong and effective system of crisis management, pre-emption and tools are capable of mitigating its negative repercussions and achieving rapid and sustainable recovery. The United Arab Emirates has provided an inspiring example in this regard. While this crisis continues to have negative repercussions on many countries in the world on the health, economic and social levels, and is seeking solutions to mitigate its effects and overcome its major developmental risks, the UAE has continued to implement its major development plans and projects.
A few days ago, His Highness Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, tweeted: Crisis management creates opportunities… and crises of management destroys gains.” He was expressing the UAE’s distinctive approach in managing crises, taking advantage of the opportunities it offers, and reducing the negative effects it causes on the state and society. This approach is one of the aspects of excellence in the UAE’s development experience since the establishment of the state in the early 1970s at the hands of the late Sheik Zayed ben Sultan Al Nahyane, who was able to confront the problems and challenges faced by the fledgling state of the UAE with strength and rigidity, thus establishing a unique school in crisis management, to which it follows its approach and adds sound leadership, which has made it impossible to emulate the UAE today in a regional and global effective management, and encourages effective management to participate in the UAE, because it is unable to accept the complications and institutions, because it is no matter of its solutions, and its problems, at various stages of their management, and establish a sense of responsibility as partners in the process of renaissance and development.
At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened economic, social, and political crises in many countries, the UAE has been an exception, and has been able to take advantage of the opportunities that this pandemic has offered to continue its course of achievements. It is enough that in the first year of this pandemic, two major global achievements were made; The first is the launch of the Hope Probe on its previously scheduled date, July 2020, from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan. The probe will successfully reach its Red Planet orbit on February 9, 2021. The UAE will be the fifth country in the world to achieve this achievement, after the United States, the “former” Soviet Union, the European Union and India. The second achievement was the UAE’s joining the Peaceful Nuclear Energy Club, which includes about 33 countries around the world, after its successful operation of the first plant of the Baraka Peaceful Nuclear Power Plant in August 2020, which entered into full commercial operation in March 2021. The UAE became the first Arab country to produce electricity from nuclear energy technology.
The UAE has been at the forefront of many international indicators for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, not only in terms of health and community immunization, but also in economic aspects. It was at the top of the global ranking for the new coronavirus vaccination rate, according to a recent classification issued by the New York Times, days ago. Foreign direct investment to the UAE grew by 44.2% in 2020 compared to 2019, reaching $19.88 billion, despite the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cumulative stock of foreign direct investment flows rose by 12.9% over the same period, the UAE economy grew by 174%, 19 the sector created a multithousand jobs in the UAE sector and other sectors, as well as the management of the UAE’s financial and other sectors. contain its various repercussions and take advantage of the opportunities it has provided to achieve further achievements that support its development path.
Despite the human tragedies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in many countries, the UAE will continue to be a real test of the strength of countries and an indicator of the assessment of their systems in crisis management and sustainable recovery. The UAE has succeeded in this test with high efficiency, and has provided a model for others in effective and rational crisis management and proactive preparation for the future. Suffice it to mention here that the UAE was at the forefront of the countries of the world that started early efforts to achieve sustainable recovery from this pandemic, and even led global efforts in this regard, when it announced the structure of its government to keep pace with the new priorities of the post-coronavirus world, and dedicated the sessions of the World Summit of Governments that were held in hypothetically to explore the nature of the role of the past, and how they can use these opportunities to advance the sustainability of the pandemic.
