The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the Kingdom of Morocco organized an official ceremony on Tuesday to mark the 54th National Day, which this year carries the slogan “United.” This is a moment that represents for Emiratis an opportunity to reflect on their country’s journey full of achievements, to recall its history and the authentic values upon which the founding fathers built the state, and an opportunity to look to the future with a vision based on ambition and innovation.
This celebration, which was attended by a number of Arab and foreign ambassadors and military attachés accredited to Morocco, along with Moroccan political, cultural, military and judicial figures who came to share the country’s ally’s joy on its national day, included the screening of a documentary film showing the first moments of the founding of the United Arab Emirates, and the path of its rapid development that turned the sands into skyscrapers that touch the clouds, and the desert into oases and economic and cultural centers that attract the world’s attention today.
In a speech on this occasion, Al-Asri Saeed Ahmed Al-Dhaheri, the UAE Ambassador to Rabat, said: “Today we recall the exceptional journey of a nation that began with a wise vision and a firm will, which made the Union a unique model in construction, development and progress, and established the features of the present and laid the foundations for the future.” He added: “From the first moment of the establishment of the Union, the Founding Father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan – may God have mercy on him – made the human being the focus and goal of development, based on a forward-looking vision that believes that building the human being is the basis for building the nation, and that empowering him is the real power for the renaissance and prosperity of the state.”
The same diplomat added that “the UAE has witnessed major transformations over the past decades that have encompassed various fields, from the economy and sustainable development to space exploration, and from clean energy to artificial intelligence, to become at the forefront of countries that create the future instead of waiting for it.”
The ambassador explained that “this transformation is clearly evident in the country’s exceptional economic performance, as the UAE’s non-oil foreign trade achieved a growth of 24 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period of the previous year, at a time when the average growth of global trade did not exceed 1.75 percent,” noting that “its value reached 1.7 trillion dirhams, double its level five years ago, with record leaps in trade exchange with international partners.”
In addition to trade growth, the same speaker noted that “the UAE ranked second globally in the number of new foreign direct investment projects, and third globally and first in the Middle East in terms of the total assets of sovereign wealth funds, which amounted to about $2.49 trillion by the end of the first half of this year.” He added: “In terms of digital and technological transformation, the UAE topped the countries of the region in the Government AI Readiness Index, which included 193 countries, based on criteria of government efficiency, the development of the technology sector, and the availability of data and infrastructure.” He emphasized that “within the framework of this future vision, the country is working to build an economic system based on creativity and entrepreneurship and developing innovation labs and centers that support growth in future sectors, to consolidate its position as a global destination for investment in artificial intelligence and advanced technology.”
The United Arab Emirates is also establishing itself, adds Abu Dhabi’s ambassador to Rabat, in “the field of space exploration, as it announced its joining the project to develop and build a lunar space station, alongside the United States, Japan, Canada and the European Union. It also announced joining the list of leading countries in the field of polar research and presence, as it is the first Arab country with a permanent polar research base.”
The ambassador continued: “We also congratulate the wise government of the United Arab Emirates on the unprecedented global achievement of the Dubai Civil Defence General Command team, by entering the Guinness Book of World Records as the first firefighting team in the world to climb the snowy summit of Mount Toubkal in Morocco, the highest peak in the Arab world at a height of 4,167 meters, as it succeeded in breaking the world record, achieving a time of 10 hours and 19 minutes.”
