UAE partners international efforts to boost economic growth of developing nations: Al Mansouri
His Excellency Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy and Head of the UAE delegation to the Qatar Summit for Financing Development, stressed that the UAE will continue partnering with the international community to facilitate economic growth in developing countries, in line with the Millennium Development Goals.
Al Mansouri hoped the Conference will succeed in forming a clearer vision to tackle the challenges of the global financial downturn and improve humanitarian situation across the world, through real commitment from all stakeholders.
He explained that the UAE is committed to a policy of co-operation and has initiated several development programmes in neighbouring countries. Financial investments and direct contributions by the UAE is over US$70 billion, which have benefited people in 95 nations. He cited Dubai Cares as a pioneering initiative in this direction aimed at providing education to more than one million children in economically disadvantaged societies.
He added: "The UAE has bilateral agreements with many developing nations with co-operation across various social and economic sectors. Apart from contributions set by the Monterrey conference, we have initiated assistance programmes through the UN agencies and international institutions to war-battered countries as well as to provide humanitarian help through the UAE's membership in the Donors Support Group".
Al Mansouri said that the UAE wrote off Iraq's debts that totaled USD 7 billion. "Furthermore, we have launched a federal strategy to initiate action plans for ensuring high standards of living and leveraging the local economy to enable it to compete with the regional and international economies.”
Al Mansouri said that the UAE has succeeded in creating a diversified economy backed by legislations and laws. The government policies have helped in rising nationals' income and ensured support to all economic sectors.
In his speech, the Minister of Economy stated that anti-money laundering and anti-corruption policies followed by the UAE have been praised by many advanced nations. He pointed that the UAE is following a Green policy towards urban planning with Masdar, the alternative energy initiative, being the best example reflecting this commitment.
Al Mansouri said the forum comes at a time when the global community needs collective efforts to create efficient solutions to deal with the international financial crisis that affects many nations and development programmes in developing world countries. He said that the financial turmoil is threatening the progress made to attain the Millennium Development Goals.
The Minister of Economy stressed on the necessity of implementing Monterrey recommendations and sustaining cooperation between rich and poor countries in executing these recommendations and the need to overcome the financial and political obstacles that blocks this process.
"We welcome all decisions taken by nation leaders who met in Washington and agreements between them aiming to deal with the financial crisis, but we see the necessity that every country should take responsibility in facing the crisis. In the UAE, we are ready to work hand in hand with the international community to overcome this crisis as we will fulfil our developments commitments and assist poor countries to achieve international growth objectives", he concluded.
