Page 463 - MOE ENGLISH PR REPORT - JANUARY 2024
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1/18/24, 3:16 PM Competition between Gulf economies benefits whole region, UAE economic minister tells Arab News
“If you look at three years ago, competition was there and competition is always
going to be the re; the UAE grew, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, the Gulf
Cooperation Council grew. I’m so happy,” he said.
“The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are expecting the Gulf to
grow in 2024. Competition is really helping growth; show me competition that
doesn’t lead to innovation and growth … there’s none.
“We want competition ( in the UAE), because we need innovation, we need
movement, we need growth; the bottom is line I want to create jobs,” he added.
Al-Marri said he was not worried about the UAE economy, or Gulf economies as
a who le, despite concerns about oil price
uctuations and their being pegged to
the dollar.
Bahr aini businessman Kha lid Janahi agreed and said competition in the region
forced all countries to excel.
Concerns for Middle East security, and therefore economic growth, as a result
of who might become president of the US later this year are unfounded,
according to Janahi .
“It does not make any dierence who will be president of the US to the region;
the region ha s to be smart enough to deal with that,” he said. “It does rely on the
US, it goes withou t saying, but if you look at the past four years how they’ve
started to diversify the ir relationships; it’s fascinating,” he added.
However, Janahi said tha t it was vital Gulf countries focused on creating
conditions tha t enabled a “soft landing, not a hard landing” when a move away
from pegging to the dollar inevitably came in the future.
Anthon y Scaramucci, a one-time adviser to former US President Donald Trump,
discussed the likelihood of hi s former employer making it back to the White
House.
Scaramucci, who ha s been vocal in his praise of the Saudi delegation in Davos
thi s year and, in particular, of its highlighting of the megaprojects underway in
the Kingdom, hi ghl ight ed Trump’s legal case surrounding the Capitol Hill riot
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