DUBAI: Talks of an economic competition between Saudi Arabia and UAE have been making headlines in recent months, as both Gulf countries announce aggressive initiatives to either attract or deploy investment.
Badr Al-Olama, an executive director at Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala, downplayed these comments, saying “value chains can’t be dominated by a single country.”
“What many people try to interpret as competition is completely wrong because the market is so large,” he told Arab News on the sidelines of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit in Dubai.
Al-Olama, who also heads the organizing committee of the high-profile GMIS, said the UAE and the Kingdom are “looking at cooperation in many parts of the value chain and finding opportunities for synergy.”
“The fact that we are close neighbors means we are able to complement each other with certain capabilities to compete on a global scale,” he explained.
The two Gulf countries are independently adjusting their social and economic policies in a bid to diversify their economies away from oil.
In the case of the UAE, Mubadala plays a big role in this ambition, as it pursues billions worth of investment opportunities overseas, including in areas such as technology, life sciences, and renewables.