A PRINCE WITH A MISSION, A VISION (AND A PLAN FOR A COLONY ON MARS) By Tony Lennox
For anyone familiar with the dashing Crown Prince of Dubai, it would have come as no surprise to find him on stage, in front of an international audience, delivering his vision of the future… as a hologram.
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ike an Arabic Captain Kirk, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum “beamed down” to dispense a space-age visualisation of technological endeavour and opportunity.
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The VR presentation at the Seventh Annual World Government Summit in 2019 demonstrated just how far Dubai has come in half a century. The Crown Prince, like his father and grandfather before him, is aware that Dubai’s future will depend on throwing off the national dependence on oil.
Dubai, the prince said, was a place of limitless inspiration and inventiveness. Every effort was being made to ensure that the city was at the cutting-edge of technical modernism, and determined to stay 10 years ahead of the global competition. Outlining his hi-tech topic, Seven Shifts Shaping Future Cities, he said: “We need to harness the power of innovation and creativity to set standards for smart cities.”
At 37, he is not only the heir to the rulership of Dubai, he is the embodiment of the city’s ambition, and the man trusted to take his people into the future.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is the appointed heir of his father, the 70-year-old Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai. He is also a role model for a generation of young Emiratis.
Politicians and business leaders in Dubai for the summit were left in no doubt as to the city’s aspirations.
He is trying to position his city in the vanguard of the fourth industrial revolution – a future of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things
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(IoT), which promises to change the way the world works. Hamdan is the second son of Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum bin Juma Al Maktoum. Their eldest son, Rashid, died of a heart attack at the age of 33. It was Hamdan, Sandhurst graduate and all-action man, who was officially named Crown Prince in 2008. He also attended the London School of Economics, and says his time at Sandhurst taught him “the importance of self-discipline, commitment, virtue, responsibility, endurance, understanding, teamwork, friendship and the benefits of hard work”. He was appointed to the chairmanship of the Dubai Executive Council (DEC) at 24, having demonstrated a thorough understanding of his father’s vision for Dubai – that the key to its prosperity lay in economic and social variety.
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