INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
Global Governance
Global governance is defined as “the complex of formal and informal institutions, mechanisms, relationships, and processes between and among states, markets, citizens and organizations, both inter-and non-governmental, through which collective interests in the global plan are articulated, rights and obligations are established, and differences are mediated.”
Golden Friends of India Award
I was proud to be felicitated with the Golden Friends of India Award by Anurag Bhushan, Consul General of India in Dubai, on the occasion of the 68th Indian Republic Day celebrations in Dubai. The award was instituted by the Indian Business and Professional Council (IBPC) as a mark of acknowledgment and appreciation for my role in promoting economic and investment relationships between the UAE and India and in fostering private-public investments in various sectors, especially in Sharjah Free Zones. IBPC is one of the professional organizations that recognizes businessmen and professionals within the framework of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and contributes to stimulating economic, trade, and investment relations between India and the United Arab Emirates.
It was really an honor to receive such a prestigious award underlined with the depth of the bilateral relations between the UAE and India.
Trade Balance Between UAE and India
Trade is vital to the success of a civilization. International trade is an important factor in raising living standards, providing employment, and enabling consumers to enjoy variety and exploration. According to the Emirates 24|7, India is considered the UAE’s primary trade partner, accounting for about 9.8 percent of its total non-oil trade. India is also the largest importer of goods from the UAE, buying about 14.9 percent of the country’s exports and about 8.7 percent of its re-exports, and has become the second-largest market of the UAE in the latter category.
India ranks third among the countries that export to the UAE, accounting for about 9.2 percent of total imports by the UAE. The total volume of foreign trade between the two countries amounted to $60 billion in 2014, thus making the UAE India’s primary trade partner in the Middle East and North Africa. Economic sources expect the value of trade exchanges between the UAE and India to hit $100 billion in 2020.
Thank You, Singapore
It was another proud moment for me as I received the Friend of Singapore Sustainability Award on February 1, 2017, from G. Jaya Krishnan, International Enterprise’s Group Director of Middle East & Africa. I thank you, Singapore, for recognizing my efforts in sustainability. It means a lot.
GGGI and SEWA Meet
On January 25, 2017, I had the opportunity to meet with Ms. Jin Young Kim, UAE Country Representative, and her team from Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in my SEWA office. There, we had a great discussion about sustainable cities and ways to promote achievement of strong, inclusive, and sustainable green growth. I would like to elaborate more on this topic below.
GGGI
GGGI is an international organization headquartered in Seoul, Korea. Launched in June 2010, GGGI supports the widespread dissemination and implementation of a new model of development for green growth. The green growth paradigm integrates economic development and environmental sustainability. It includes poverty reduction, green job creation, social development, and energy security through the promotion of green technology and innovation. It is dedicated to supporting and promoting strong, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies.
GGGI STRATEGIC PLAN 2015-2020
UAE & GGGI COLLABORATION
On March 13, 2011, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a memorandum of understanding with the GGGI. The agreement includes the establishment of a Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional office in Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City, as well as the development of joint capacity-building programs.
The announcement was made by Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change and Chief Executive of Masdar. Regarding the announcement, Dr. Al Jaber said, “The mandate set out for GGGI by President Lee Myung-bak to help advance green economic growth is fully aligned with our forward-thinking leadership’s vision. Such institutions are crucial to the adoption of renewable energy technologies and climate change mitigation and we are delighted that GGGI has chosen to establish its regional office at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. The partnership between the UAE and GGGI will promote the development of collaborative programs and activities that will catalyze green growth across the UAE and the region.”
GGGI Executive Director Richard Samans said, “Through its presence in the UAE, GGGI will utilize its network of public-private partnerships to promote Masdar City as a world-class smart city. GGGI will also develop the new regional office as a knowledge-sharing, training, and capacity-building center in the field of green growth.”
The memorandum of understanding states that GGGI experts will work in the new Abu Dhabi regional office to help develop and execute low-emission green growth projects under a green growth master plan tailored to UAE’s conditions. Training and capacity-building programs will also be conducted on green growth initiatives at the regional, national, and local levels through reciprocal human resource exchange programs. GGGI activities will also involve financial support for joint projects, collaborative research, and joint programs.
UAE will foster a tri-party collaboration involving GGGI, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) to promote the adoption of renewable energy solutions, new green technologies, and carbon-neutral measures to advance economic growth as well as quality of life in Masdar City and the world.
Saudi Red Crescent Authorities
Saudi Red Crescent Authorities (SRCA), founded in 1963, is a humanitarian society that provides emergency medical services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The SRCA offers emergent and fast first aid with skill and effective results for citizens and foreign laborers who are staying in the kingdom in ordinary circumstances and in catastrophic times. It also contributes to relief work both inside the Kingdom and abroad as well as enhancing the standard of medical knowledge. As the SRCA has made special efforts toward the promotion of international humanitarian aid, one of its most significant projects in this regard is Saudi HEART, which I would like to briefly mention to my readers.
SAUDI HEART
Saudi Humanitarian Emergency Aid & Response Team, Saudi HEART, enhances the capacity and impact of the SRCA’s humanitarian services nationally and internationally, reduces suffering in disaster-affected communities, and contributes to the future recovery of the most vulnerable populations affected by emergencies and disasters.
Its mission and strategic goal is to serve as an international model in qualification and empowerment to provide humanitarian aid to victims of natural disasters and humanitarian crises, without discrimination. The team operates at the best standards and follows international performance criteria. Team members are passionate about their mission, inspired by the responsibility of their national identity, enlightened by the highest human values and committed to the principles of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies—humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. The team guards its members and is committed to protecting and always maintaining a helpful and supportive role in this area. They are thoroughly equipped to meet the call of duty at any time around the world.
ASPEN INSTITUTE
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. It is a nonpartisan forum for values-based leadership and the exchange of ideas.
The Aspen Institute has earned a reputation for gathering diverse, nonpartisan thought leaders, creative thinkers, scholars, and members of the public to address some of the world’s most complex problems. But the goal of these convenings is to have an impact beyond the conference room. They are designed to provoke, further, and improve actions taken in the real world.
In order to achieve their mission, they promote policy programs, leadership initiatives, conferences and events, youth and engagement programs, seminars, and international partnerships.
Self-Made Millionaire Trapped by Wealth
A self-made millionaire, 38-year-old Mazzi Dumato was living the luxurious life in Dubai when he decided to give it all up and travel the world in a campervan.
He is a Brazilian of Syrian origin and was feeling trapped by his fortune—penthouse, supercars, and wealth—so he donated much of his money to set up centers to help poor people in Brazil.
In an interview, he was quoted as saying, “It was meaningless wealth, and what was most important was my life, which I barely had a grip on. So I chose adventure and to learn more about what was happening outside the bubble that I was living in, and decided that I wanted to go out in the world and make a difference.”
Mr. Dumato left Dubai by giving his main business, Cactimedia, to his younger brother Michael and closing his other two businesses. He later bought properties in Brazil that he turned into centers for the poor.
“Our first is a healing center with a full-time doctor, in the city of Florianopolis. The second one is a house where we provide free accommodation and food to people from the leukemia hospital in Curitiba,” he said. An alternative treatment center for cancer in Urubici, Brazil, the largest of the three centers, will be opened at the end of the year.
Shell Foundation
Shell Foundation is an independent charity established by the Shell Group in 2000 with a $250 million endowment to create and scale new solutions to global development challenges. Business thinking applied to the major social and environmental issues is linked to the energy sector, and seeks to leverage the skills and networks of Shell where possible, to deliver greater developmental impact. Shell Foundation acts like a business in the way they assess their effectiveness and regularly publish their internal performance analysis to support organizations in related fields.
They are part of a small yet growing number of “venture philanthropists,” who view enterprise-based models as a cost-effective way to support inclusive economic development.
FOUNDATION APPROACH
Shell Foundation works with a small number of entrepreneurial partners with the aim of identifying the market failures that underpin many of the world’s problems, and setting up new social enterprises to solve them. The foundation provides patient grant funding, extensive business support, and access to networks to help pioneers validate new models, achieve financial independence, and expand across geographical boundaries.
Once a new solution is proven to be viable, they create specialist intermediaries to facilitate growth and replication at an industry level.
This shows their conscious dedication to the work. I appreciate and thank them for doing so much for global development.
Center on International Cooperation
The Center on International Cooperation (CIC) is a foreign policy think tank based at New York University that works to enhance multilateral responses to global problems, including conflict, humanitarian crises, and recovery; international security challenges, including weapons proliferation and the changing balance of power; and resource scarcity and climate change. Through innovative applied research and direct engagement with policy actors, CIC has been at the forefront of policy decision-making in each of its core areas of research.
CIC’s programs and research activities focus on international security institutions, post-conflict peace-building, and global peace operations, with a particular emphasis on the UN and multilateral responses to conflict. Their projects are Global Peace Operations; the Afghanistan Regional Project; Resource Scarcity, Climate Change, and Multilateralism; Humanitarian Action in a New Security Era; Strengthening Multilateral Approaches to Nuclear and Other WMDs; and the Managing Global Order Project.
Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convened global and emerging leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, such as climate change, economic development, empowerment of women, and global health issues. Through CGI University, CGI America, CGI International and its flagship Annual Meeting, CGI brought together more than 200 sitting and former heads of state, more than 20 Nobel laureates, and hundreds of leading corporate CEOs, presidents of foundations, executive directors of the most effective NGOs, and major philanthropists, to commit to take action against these challenges. From 2005–2016, CGI members have made more than 3,600 Commitments to Action, which are improving the lives of over 435 million people in 180 countries.
With the mission of turning ideas into action, CGI acts in the following four ways. Let’s take a closer look.
ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional intergovernmental organization established on August 8, 1967, in Bangkok, Thailand, with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration by the Founding Fathers; namely, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. ASEAN promotes pan-Asianism (unity of Asian people) and inter-governmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, military, educational, and cultural integration among its members and Asian states. Since 1967, the organization’s membership has expanded to include Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
On August 8, 2017, I had the honor of attending the ASEAN golden jubilee celebration in Dubai as a guest of honor; I was very pleased with their concept of “one vision, one identity, and one community.” There were performances representing its five founding countries and ending with the unity song.
In their relations with one another, the ASEAN member states have adopted the following fundamental principles contained in the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, a peace treaty established by the founding members of ASEAN in Southeast Asia in 1976:
Mission to Seafarers
Mission to Seafarers is a global nonprofit organization funded entirely by donations, which operates over 121 Seafarers’ Centers in more than 200 ports in over 50 countries. It has operated in the UAE since 1962; the Angel Appeal was the name given to the project launched to generate awareness and support for the work of Mission to Seafarers in UAE.
In 2016, Mission to Seafarers assisted 1589 seafarers who were without pay for a combined total of 6,356 months, or 529 years. Their mission is to help seafarers facing shipwreck, abandonment, loneliness, and danger.
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