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UAE looks East

The South Korea visit by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai – an energetic follow-up on S Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's trip to the UAE last year – is yet another reflection of his policy of diversity – entering into mutually beneficial alliances with developed and developing economies alike, his focus lately being on the Asian continent. As he implied in India recently, the hands of the clock are forever turning, we can never turn them back, only leverage the present time for mutual gain and progress. As pointed out during the discussions, UAE's meteoric rise in business and tourism sectors will provide for the basis of the economic exchange, and the initial thrust of the partnership will focus on key areas registering growth like construction and energy. UAE-Korea trade has been steadily growing for the last three years, and the enhanced basket of exchange, especially services, will be the bedrock of intended paradigm trade shift.

Importantly, these well-thought out foreign policy directives reflect pleasingly on the UAE's political maturity. At a time when much of the Arab heartland is reorienting its politics, and therefore economics, to suit present and future trends, the UAE government has built a formidable reputation of pragmatism and prudence. In both political and economic spheres, it has adopted positions that rule out needless rigidities and lay the framework for well-organised, growing and progressive societies – a phenomenon missing in even some of the most progressive countries in the world. No doubt Shaikh Mohammed's diplomacy ball will continue to roll. In a little over a year at the top, he has already steered a course that promises not only to preserve Dubai's enviable growth and aura, but significantly enhance it. Success speaks for itself. It will not be a surprise to see Dubai's growth imprint on the wider Arab world, and beyond, before too long.