How UAE scaled the competitiveness ladder in 10 years

If he said it, consider it done. In the hallowed corridors where government decision-makers enact and execute core UAE policy, that's the accepted wisdom when it comes to delivering on the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai. As someone who's worked on several key projects with the UAE government, one of my previous bosses once told me that there doesn't seem to be much that stops HH from achieving the stretch targets once he sets his mind to it.
Case in point is the biggest news of the day today, that of the UAE bursting into the elite club of the Top 5 most competitive economies in the world. For a country that is less than 50 years old, that's no mean feat by any stretch of the imagination, but it is especially remarkable considering that the UAE "had no presence on the global competitiveness map" even 10 years ago. On his Twitter feed yesterday, HH shared two pictures of him with the Emirates Competitiveness Council (ECC) team, taken at the same spot at Bab Al Shams in Dubai but 10 years apart. The first picture, clicked on May 27, 2009, was when he launched the ECC, and said, at that time, "many people did not understand the importance of the council."
Ten years of hard work, vision and determination later, the picture becomes a lot clearer, with the UAE achieving its competitiveness mission with flying colours. "Today, the UAE ranks top globally in 75 global indicators, and is among the top 10 in 311 global competitive indices. This is the outcome of 10 years of work," HH tweeted along with the second picture, clicked on May 27, 2019. The country that ranked No. 15 on the World Competitiveness Rankings just three years ago, in 2016, today ranks among the Top 5. "We look forward to a future decade of competitive innovation. We build on what we have achieved in the past 10 years. In the next 10 years, we will be in the top ten in more than 1,000 indices," Sheikh Mohammed has now said. Consider it done.