UAE Ambassador: Real Estate Bubble, Power, India, Emirati Life | Dr. Abdulnasser | FO409 Raj Shamani

31:54Some local person with a UAE passport or someone close to the royal family or the royal family itself, just be like this land now from us because we want to build something here and then she's away bye you mean if someone already owns it yeah no they would be offered a very reasonable price if that was really the case and they still have the decision to sell or not to sell so if you are doing a project and you want to do it isn't it because it's run by the rulers then they can do there's no like proper government or democracy you can't challenge it anywhere in the international court I'll give you a very specific example.

32:35One of my biggest struggles, not struggles, but one of the things that I get requested but I can't do much about, is can the ruler intervene with a court ruling to, for example, reduce the sentence or allow this person to go back to their countries or whatever, and I cannot do it. You cannot do it. The only thing that happens is during Ramadan or during one of the two Eids, that the ruler would have a list of prisoners to be released from the UAE prisons. The question is, can somebody at a powerful position misuse power? Because the country is not democratic. You can't vote out the person using or misusing the power.

33:19See, there are always, I think in every system, there are always individuals who will abuse their power or abuse their position. This is part of human nature, not part of a country's DNA. But the question is, do you have the checks and balances to be able to bring those individuals to be accountable for what they have done? And in the UAE, it's the highest you can possibly find anywhere in the world. And the second point the developer said was, what you see right now, the whole hype in Dubai, specifically he was talking about, it's war hype. It's? War hype. Okay. and what he meant by that because there's so much chaos everybody's just parking their money and shifting here till the time everything goes back to normal the moment it goes back to normal people would want to go back to their countries so the richly rich of the russia and the ukraines a lot of russians have started investing in uae in the last couple of years after the war so like that's the hype after brexit a lot of britishers started investing in uae and you see in fact i think the biggest brokers are the biggest people buying are britishers out there right now even more than indians today so british after brexit because people started thinking that maybe the uk economy is not going to do well so they're coming here so everywhere whenever there's going to be a war hype uae is going to gain because it's very friendly for people to come stay be safe be at a nice place park your money for a while and then go back partially correct uh whether they're going to to do it for a while or for the long term, that's completely up to the individual.

34:59But yes, whenever there's something happening in the region or in some other region, the first thing that people think of is, we want to go to the UAE and we want to shift to the UAE. But there are also other examples. So Brexit happened a few years back. Why are people from the United Kingdom still moving to the UAE, right? I mean, there's no active war or anything. Yeah, but there's an army of British brokers who are selling stuff, left, right, center. No, but workers sell you dreams everywhere. Yeah. Right? Why are Indians moving to the UAE? Why are the Chinese moving to the UAE? There are no active wars.

35:36I mean, there was a recent conflict between India and Pakistan, but other than that, but Indians are not leaving because of that. Yeah, but they were moving even before that happens and they will be moving for quite some time. Why are people moving to UAE? Why do you think Indians are moving? So usually when I fly Delhi, Dubai, I go for the afternoon flight. That one time I had something in the afternoon, so I went for the evening flight, which arrives around midnight. And I was in the bus. So that slot is, for me, is really bad because you don't even get to the gate. They park the aircraft somewhere else and the bus takes you around until you get delivered to the terminal.

36:15And there were a few individuals and a couple of them were Indians and they were talking and I was listening and they don't know who I am. They don't know what my position is. I was the ambassador back then And One of them was saying Pre-COVID I was actually going to go back I don't like it here I don't want to live here And I thought you know that's it But then COVID happened And I saw how this place reacted to COVID How they dealt with COVID There was no discrimination Between Emiratis and non-Emiratis Everyone had a fair shot at getting First access to vaccine And top notch healthcare and now we're living here, me and my wife and my kids.

36:56And now within what he was saying, he also criticized because someone asked him, he's like, where are we? Why is it taking this long to get to the terminal? He's like, yeah, yeah, we got dropped off in Sharjah because Sharjah is very close to Dubai. Dubai airport is very close to Sharjah. So he was making a joke that the aircraft parked in Sharjah and now the bus has to take us back to Dubai. But like, okay, despite that, what he really said and like was part of, like the main point of what he was saying is he found reasons to live in the UAE because of COVID. Now, is it true that people move to the UAE when some conflict breaks out elsewhere?

37:41Yes. We've seen it with 2011, we've seen it with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and you can have so many examples as such. But COVID was also a turning point and people don't realize how much of a turning point it has been. The way we have dealt with it, the way we have provided certain services, the way people felt that you don't have to go and fight over groceries or like there wasn't a single instance where you would go to a grocery shop or a hypermarket and not find the essentials or what you need for it. Not only the essentials, even the other things. I mean, the brands changed and you were getting them now from different other sources, but they were always there.

38:30And that, people don't forget such things. Like when something happens and it's as traumatizing as COVID is and you find this safe zone or haven that the UAE is, you wouldn't want to go elsewhere. And now after that, obviously it became probably a word of mouth. By the way, we're living here. We like it. We're enjoying it. It's great. I would go pick up my kids from school whenever I'm in the UAE and I would talk to the parents there. And one of them is originally from an Asian country, but has been living in the UK so has the citizenship and so on. And they moved to the UAE. And he's like, you know, it's a British school and it's a British teaching system, which we like and we're comfortable with.

39:18And he was telling me, like he was comparing the British schools in the UAE and that why this one is the appropriate one for their kids. And why now they can, you know, why now they're living here because they like it. He even talked about the healthcare system specifically and that while there is quite a long time, and this is public information when it comes to NHS in the United Kingdom. No such wait time exists in the UAE. You can go to any hospital and get medical treatment right away. Even if you want to go for a checkup, you will still get it right away. So UAE has multiple emirates, Abu Dhabi, Dubai.

39:58Everybody has their own rulers. How all of them come together? Because they might have their own tradition, own way of thinking, own way of vision, own way of money. We formed the Union of Seven Emirates. with a ruling family in each of the Emirates. I don't know if you know this or not, but there is what we call the Supreme Council. And the Supreme Council is a council of all the seven rulers. And those seven rulers have to agree on who the next president of the U.S. is going to be. It's like a board meeting. Very high level meeting. So when the late Sheikh Khalifa, peace be upon his soul, passed away, they met and they chose Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed to be the next UAE president and so this is how the system works so the president was his father right?

40:50his brother his brother his older brother older brother yeah but isn't it the next president would be because the monarchy is there so he will be the next president so he was the count prince and because he's the count prince of Abu Dhabi he becomes the ruler of Abu Dhabi not the councillor yeah so the supreme council has to convene and choose the next president of the UAE. Now, by default, it has been Abu Dhabi because Abu Dhabi is the capital. Abu Dhabi is the largest emirate of the UAE and so on. But the Supreme Council does convene. The Supreme Council does choose the next president of the UAE.

41:30And Abu Dhabi is the richest, right? Amongst all of them. Yes.

41:36and so let's talk about individuals then okay so abu dhabi because he'll become the crown prince dubai the crown prince right all sharjah everybody will become have their own things right what happens if the next generation is not as good as as smart as as intelligent or visionary as the current ones I've only read about Dubai so I would I know like the the founding fathers were great and then the next and the next like everybody till now has been really strategic really visionary and you keep the more story you get to know you feel like the next generation keeps getting better right I mean with at least all things that we see at least in the modern lens we see a father we just look at him as like an ideal man who recently visited us as well right so who every man should be like him oh my god like this is he's really an ideal person he's right at every every place but what if someone who's next is not as well read as good or maybe power hungry or maybe just have you seen movie dictator yes someone becomes like that got you um Okay, so a couple of things here.

43:01Every generation is responsible for preparing for the next generation. Yeah. And for preparing the next generation of leadership. And I have interacted with Sheikh Khaled, the campus of Abu Dhabi, and I have interacted with Sheikh Hamdan, the campus of Dubai. My interaction with Sheikh Khaled was, VO2 Max, what's your VO2 Max? Biohacking stuff. What do you do? what kind of workouts, and he obviously teased me also about, it took me some time to get the joke, because that was like the first time we were, you know, like having conversation. And he's like, so when is your 18th birthday? I'm like, and I was paused for a while, and then he's like, no, seriously, like you look like you're way, way too young.

43:49So anyway, it was a joke, which took me some time to pick up, but that was the kind of conversation that I had with him. He's very well read. He's one step ahead of everyone when it comes to asking questions, getting to the nitty gritty details of things. Because when he came, for example, for a visit, we all sat down to basically do that briefing for him to ask questions. and I remember and this is a funny story he his ex-Nashtar Jabber was there and Sultan Jabber is a federal minister but he's also in charge of ADNOK and he saw in his briefing you know like the number of oil barrels in the strategic oil reserve here in India and like the one that is managed or the one that is that was part of the cooperation between us and India and he's like is it this number?

44:50like it was clear that the number is rounded up he's like yeah that's the number and then his actions told him the exact number it was this point and two digits after that and we all cracked up laughing because you know like okay he wanted the specifics and obviously it was he was given the specific but my point is he doesn't he wouldn't take what he has in front of him in terms of briefing for granted and he would want to fully understand the context and fully understand the details when it comes to such things. So you would see, for example, under his leadership now, there's a lot of focus on institutional framework and basically making sure that integration between the different entities in Abu Dhabi is solid, that we are thinking of the next things that we need to do, this focus on AI, this focus on data centers, on the next big thing in the emerging tech sector and whatnot is being already worked on when it comes to the UAE.

45:57So even the officials that have been appointed after he became Congress, you would see that there are different group of individuals with different backgrounds, different focus areas, There's different fields of study that they have done. I also saw, I also observed an incident. I was, maybe you'd want to know this, to also tell you the personal side of Sheikh Khaled. We were in a place, it's basically a very private kind of gathering with the president. There were quite a few individuals there. I was there and if I understood this correctly there was someone there with his senior and they were supposed that person not the senior person the person who works for him had prepared something to my understanding to present to the president and before that happens Sheikh Khaled walks over to him and says are you ready?

47:10and you don't like there are no cameras there no journalists no one's documenting this it's something very natural and it's part of his upbringing and I'm not surprised because I've also interacted with His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed and I don't think anyone in the world has as much emotional intelligence as he does and so when I see Sheikh Khaled doing this I'm not surprised at all now Sheikh Hamdan has this focus on fitness and he did this 30 by 30 challenge in Dubai and you know he's always doing some experience somewhere jumping from some place so like he's into all of those activities and you know when we were flying between Delhi and Mumbai.

48:11So I was on that flight with him. And we were all sitting in the same place. And, you know, he was just chatting and joking and talking to everyone and having those conversations and telling stories from his childhood. Even the story like how, so Sheikh Hamdan's mother, her name is Hind. I never knew that, you know, is it, you know, like just a name or was it, you know, after, because India and Arabic is Hint. And it was in a meeting with,

48:52it was in the meeting with the foreign minister, his ex-execency, Dr. Jay Shankar, when he mentioned that story to him, he told him, he narrated that story to him and he told him, yeah, because back in the day, we didn't have the infrastructure, the hospitals, the healthcare that we have now. And she was, his mother was flown to India, or well, back in the day they couldn't, taken to India.

49:19Sorry, I'm telling the story in a very wrong way. Let's go back. If I go for instance to, so I'm from Ajman. My hometown is Ajman. And if I go to see the ruler of Ajman, He knows my family, obviously, because we are from that city. So he would ask about the family. My grandfather used to work for him, used to work with him, and so he was telling his ex-husband, Dr. J. Shanker, the story that back in the day, when his grandmother was going to give birth to his mother, they didn't have the hospitals or the clinics or whatever to do so, or the healthcare that is available now in the UAE. And so they had to take her to India, and she delivered her in India and they called her Hind.

50:08Now, why would anyone share such a personal story with a foreign official? Well, there's obviously the familiarity with India that we have, but it's also that upbringing, how he became the person that he is today as Minister of Defense, as the Compromise of Dubai. as Deputy Prime Minister as well, that there's always the professional side where you need to be on point with so many things, but there's also that personal side. And this is what's quite unique about the UAE leadership across all Emirates. You know, he'd ask me about India and he would ask me, so how is it living there? Are you okay?

50:53Is everything going well with you? So there's always this father-son relationship when it comes to the leadership in the UAE. And they have definitely passed this on to their sons, to their conferences. And you can feel it and you can sense it in so many different ways. Do all Arab nations compete with each other? Is there a healthy competition between UAE and Saudi Arabia and all of these? All competition is healthy competition. Whether it's among GCC countries or if it's with... Is there a neck-to-neck competition between Saudi, Qatar, and UAE? Each country provides different unique selling points.

51:36They're all trying to attract the world towards that. And we all want to attract the world to it. And there is enough appetite for everyone in the Gulf. If you look at Qatar and Saudi, for example, they were very keen on hosting the World Cup. Qatar did it, Saudi is going to do it. We haven't bid for the World Cup. So we haven't pursued that, for instance. We have done expo a couple of years back. And you've done cricket. We do cricket. So sports diplomacy is something that we focus on. Cultural diplomacy is something we focus on. And if you look at the Gulf today, we have different things to offer.

52:15The landscape is different. Even if it comes to tourism and wanting to bring visitors and tourists and increase the number of international arrivals in each country, have you been to those countries? yeah all of them? no just Qatar okay so Saudi has a very different landscape and terrain from the north all the way to the south and they grow coffee in abundant quantities when it comes to the south if you go to Qatar Qatar doesn't grow coffee but Qatar has developed infrastructure stadiums because of the World Cup and they have also certain Western FNP outlets that are not necessarily in the UAE as well as universities.

52:57We have certain universities that are not in Saudi and not in Qatar, and we also have Cleveland Clinic. So we also offer different kind of unique selling points. We also have Guggenheim Museum, the Louvre, and so on. Oman, for example, has a very different terrain, very different landscape going from north to south. For instance, you would see visitors from the UAE, Qatar, Saudi, even Bahrain and perhaps Kuwait to the south of Oman because the season is different there. The weather is different. The temperature is different than all of the GCC countries. Maybe in Saudi, there are areas that are still cooler in the summer.

53:43But the point is, they're quite different when it comes to their selling points. we agree on the big themes we agree on the direction that we're taking of this world the general outlook global outlook that we have but when you look into what each and every country is doing they're quite different and their economic development model is also different by core you are a Islamic nation but you have modernized it in such a way which looks global there are certain things let's say now the casino is coming which is a big deal for any nation in the GCC, I believe. In Russell Khamah, there's a casino coming?

54:24Correct. Win, right? Yeah. So that's coming. Alcohol has been there. Party, culture, everything is like very globalized. Do you face any problem in retaining your roots and getting the modern world together and building this bridge? We are a Muslim country because of a sizable Muslim population. Let's put it this way. And our rules, the rules that we have are based on obviously Islamic rules and Islamic traditions and our Islamic heritage. Now, that does not mean that we cannot adopt global ideas. But what we do is we adopt them and we localize them. so that the model that you get is not a model that we got from some other country in the far east or some country in the far west no it's a uae idea from a global thought or global idea that has been localized to the uae because of the traditions that we have and not necessarily only islamic traditions but even the societal cultural traditions that we have as an emirati population is there a struggle there's always going to be a struggle because now if you i mean you've been to the ua you go go into the malls and uh you would see people dressed in all kinds of ways and and even when i go to the mall and i see how certain individuals dress it makes me uncomfortable because you're in the country and when you are in the country you should respect the traditions of this country not because someone is going to penalize you or sentence you or uh i don't know Paws are fine because you're not wearing proper clothes to walk in a shopping mall.

56:15But because those are the norms of the country, of the population. I live in India today. Even as an ambassador, I need to do things right. I cannot walk around pretending not to understand certain cultural aspects, respect them, abide by the norms of the country and how people are living in this country. so it's always going to be a struggle it's always going to be a challenge but we have done everything possible to retain those cultural norms again my struggle with my kids is to teach them also certain things that I don't want them to not know as they grow up the older generations they would have a medias I want to be specific here like let's say the grandfather for instance or even the father and guests will be coming in and you will have Arabic coffee and you will have what we call foala.

57:15Foala is, you know, just like an Indian home we need to feed anyone who walks into the house and feed them really well. But if it's not lunchtime or if it's not dinnertime we have what we have during those meals we call it foala and it can be certain dishes and so on. so like there is a certain way to pour someone arabic coffee like you should be holding the i'm sure you saw it the small cup it's quite finjan and formal arabic and it has to be in the right so that when you hand it over to the guest you hand it over with your right hand you're not allowed to hand it over with your left hand that's against cultural norms my kids wouldn't be able to observe this because I don't hold the majlis in the UAE on a regular basis where I get guests where they can observe those behaviors and pick them up and be able to.

58:11But I try. But do other Muslim countries look down on you because you've been losing certain things which probably doesn't sit well with their ideas? It comes down to something. we are very clear on when it comes to what we are doing without jeopardizing our faith people who believe otherwise and I'm being very general here or even countries who believe otherwise then they should go back and question their own faith we know our faith we know our religion, we know our traditions we know our cultural norms and we uphold them to the highest standard the best way possible or the best way you can think of.

59:03And we are very clear when it comes to our moral compass. Nice.

59:11You question all of that or you don't believe it in one way or the other. When your foundation is not strong enough, you're not that confident in what you believe in. I don't think I can be more elaborate than this, but I think you get my point. I get your point. Yeah, and this goes into everything, religion-wise, culture-wise. I mean, even you doing the podcast here, if you are not well-read, if you don't have enough knowledge, if you're not exposed enough, you can do a podcast and you can't have a conversation and you can't ask questions and if that all was not there you can still hold your podcast but guess what happens when I challenge anything you say you'll be shattered you'll start running around trying to patch things up and trying to find whatever nuances that you can put together true I like the answer by the way great generally I like the answer I told you I do think I'm the least diplomatic person in public.

1:00:23This is not diplomatic. It's the truth. In Dubai, you're not allowed to hang, like you're not allowed to take your gunmans around, right? The public in Dubai. You're not supposed to know. No, right? No matter who you are, how important you are. No, no, no. Guns are not allowed. No. Even if you have by, for some reason or the other, like the license to own a weapon, You're not supposed to have it in your pocket or in your car just walking out. Unless you are of a security nature, security related. Until there's a very high level clearance for you, you can't. You can't be a normal businessman with 20 bodyguards.

1:01:03No, no. It's not allowed. But if you work for the security apparatus of the country, then those are certain conditions. You have best top of the top infrastructure. You provide safety, security, which is way better than top countries in the world. Like in London, you can't be on the street wearing XYZ things or something. Or you can't go in a car and people will just, people, locked car, people just steal. Right? In London, this has been the case. So you provide security. You provide infrastructure. There's everything free for a lot of people. Then you have incredible largest of the largest things.

1:01:46Right. And then there's zero tax. like where is the money coming from? So the model is different and unique. Some of the money obviously is coming from oil and gas and there's a federal budget and there are local budgets. And then those federal entities, for example, they generate their own revenues. So if you look at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we get so much revenue from attestations of documents, commercial documents and other personal documents. And that revenue goes to the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Finance based on that, obviously, because they decide what the cabinet on the allocation for each ministry when it comes to their budgets.

1:02:31So there are those sources of revenues that are being generated at the local government level. they differ from one place to the other. But you have people, you have to pay, for example, for setting up a trading license. You have to pay certain fees to get certain services connected or certain services provided. And all of this goes also into the local budget and from the local budget to the local expenditure. Now, remember I told you about this property example and that I was able to get an evaluation done specifically the property, but I had to pay for that evaluation. So that also goes into that kind of budget versus expenditure kind of thing.

1:03:16So yes, there are so many things that you can, there are so many things that you experience and the infrastructure is great. Safety is top notch and correct that all of this is at a cost. but this kind of money is also being generated from other kind of sources and they pay for that we're talking about income generating activities correct talking about revenue sources yes if someone like me or someone in their 20s is watching this podcast right now what would be the top three opportunities for them to make money in uae today real estate that goes without saying isn't it saturated like too many big players enter now somebody who's in 20s doesn't have enough capital we can't enter there and build like a real estate empire can we I'll be specific yeah give me specific three opportunities which act as a playbook for me to just go and implement so there is now there is now an application called stake MVA what?

1:04:20stake stake okay where it's specifically designed for individuals who cannot buy whole properties. And you can go in with, it will sound like I'm advertising with them, but anyways, because that's how the, one of the founders was talking about it. You can go in with as little as 500 dirhams and choose the property that you want to invest in. And then you actually get a - Fractional ownership. Fractional ownership certificate that you're owning this one, 2 % or whatever of this property. and then you get rent being paid into your account and that gets accumulated, which you can reinvest or you can take out.

1:04:59So that you can do at whatever level of income, no problem whatsoever. Second, the stock market. It has grown fantastically over the past few years and there are quite a few stocks that you can buy at very reasonable prices that pay you very good dividends. Why am I able to tell you this? It's because I get asked the same question from my cousins and family members to tell them if this is a good investment or a bad investment. So I've done some practice indirectly. And you have a finance economics background. I'm also a finance economics background. 20-year-old could also start a business in the UAE.

1:05:46we do need more Indian brands in theory it's good for someone to think about it and it's good for someone to do it and the beauty of this is this can be done at scale with an amazing or like very cost efficient baseline that you can easily scale up and sell everywhere there's one more opportunity I don't know if it's there in Dubai already or no what I saw this time when I went there's a huge sports culture like I was amazed by how every locality has hundreds of turfs for pickle, for paddle for football, for like every little thing and the culture is there's not even enough by then like everything is all time booked, there's volleyball, there's basketball, there is batman and it's fascinating to see that the country has so many sports and so many is open out there for public correct and everything is getting used by people right there are groups for every everything and because i believe there is all the people who are coming and playing there they're from different nationalities from different places they don't know each other so they need groups and they need to start playing there's a there's an app here in india which yeah so you play sport that's where i was going to tell you that another thing that they could do is develop an app to book all of these all of those places so we have that app here i didn't find anything there because i want to know all the listed places how far they are and who's playing and if there's a spotter knows i want to go book it is there something like that uh there's one that i i used a couple of times called platomic i think okay if i remember correctly i haven't played paddle in a while but that was the app that if i'm not mistaken we were using when we want to book a paddle tennis court to be able to go and play like in india we have huddle yeah so something like that there are other apps but i believe this is the most popular popular one so i like huddle because of obviously they have access of a lot of places so i found it interesting if there's something people can build maybe they should when i first came to india i was someone who never played cards.

1:07:59Hmm. And now I have a, you know, I have a daily medius and I have people coming in, game of cards, we watch games if there's any game online, like taking place on like live on TV. Like we watch the World Cup for instance, when the World Cup, because when I first came, it was World Cup time. And obviously dinner and so on. so it also changed certain things in me because of being here and that's where i understand the importance of it being in the ue because it's it's very easy to to have that dream of wanting to go to the ue and coming to the ue but when you you can find uh common groups not necessarily of the same nationality it can be really what's the future what what are the craziest things that you guys are doing next tell me top three three craziest projects that you're doing next maybe in 2030 2040 2050 we'll get to know because we get to hear all sorts of stuff right there's there's a mars simulation that that's getting built there's a temperature control city that you guys are building there's a cloud seeding which is happening that's artificial rain which will come i don't know what a what all is true and what is not cloud seeding is happening which is why you would see suddenly there is a lot of rain coming to the UAE.

1:09:22And this will always be the case. So that's one. Two, there is this, and that I probably also need to verify, but the hyperloop conversation has been started again. Now, whether it's going to happen or not, that's also another question, but then this means you have much shorter travel time between different Emirates and the UAE. Flying taxis, are they coming? They're happening, yes.

1:10:00The other thing is, and this I couldn't verify either, but I saw an announcement that residents of the UAE would be given premium access to TradGPT. Yeah, free of charge I was trying to verify this on my way here And I couldn't verify it But it's one of those things circulating around as well What's the difference between a business conference in Delhi versus Bombay? The people are different The backgrounds that you get are very different It seems like there are more entrepreneurs here Compared to Delhi So it's There's nothing wrong with that but it's just that when you're here, you can feel the startup ecosystem.

1:10:48You know, you can see it. It's very clear. It's very evident. I've been to other places. Like I've been to Hyderabad. They had this tech startup cluster. I've been to Chennai. I've been to other places. Nothing beats Mumbai when it comes to this and the ideas, the thoughts, the kind of businesses that you have. It seems to me that the only problem is scaling it up. Like you have a great idea, you have established your base here in India. How can you take it now to the next step? I think this is what they find the challenge with because you can sell in India, but there's also a very specific limit on the pricing that you can charge, right?

1:11:32It's just normal because of the market. And then they know that the natural step is going into the UAE, but then a few of them wouldn't know what's the best way to do it. and if you if they do it like yesterday one of the questions that i had was how do we make sure that the brand is there like okay we are here we have the store or we have the shop or we have the bars but how can we make sure that the clientele the residents of the way are aware of it and so the marketing that you need to do is very different than what you would do in india there's also a culture of gifting in ua a lot of people it's i think it's very cultural that you keep giving a lot of gifts to a lot of people and india too and india as well like it's very rare for anyone yeah like asian culture usually decided but i've seen in uae it's way more i think people find it i don't know is it is it in the culture is it because people don't know each other so they want to greet and be extra nice to each i have no idea but there's a lot of people gifting a lot It's part of the culture.

1:12:38There is a thing, which I'm pretty sure very applicable for certain individuals, maybe not for everyone, but let's assume like you see me, like you like my coffee mug. All right. And you say, oh, nice mug. And we say something in Arabic that means, you know, it's yours, you can have it. Yeah.

1:13:04what I would do as Abdel Nasser and you're someone that I care about, we're friends or like there is some sort of friendship there. I would get you one without you even asking for it. And that could go to a certain extent also to more expensive things than a coffee mug. Yeah, that's what I was coming to. But it depends also on the individuals and obviously their capacity. And obviously there are others who would like, if you like the car that I drive, I'm like, oh, nice car. I said, that's yours. You wouldn't take it, right? And then I wouldn't send you a car next day. Not how it works. But you get my point.

1:13:49But I've seen that happen. I've seen that happening with a bunch of people with the watches. Okay. They're really expensive watches. somebody's wearing it someone said it in front of me oh it's a nice watch and the other guy just like it's yours and the other was like no no no I didn't need no it's yours I genuinely I would love it if you have it if you like it you keep it yeah and I was like I should have complimented yeah so I was like I'm late yes yes very possible that's why I was saying you know it really depends but very possible do you think that happened when Trump said a nice plane yeah I mean the culture allows for it and they were like yeah you go have it the culture allows for it you never know but the culture does that out like you could compliment something yeah it's yours there's often word I've heard in UAE vasta yeah yeah nepotism basically nepotism in one way or the other does it work?

1:14:50like in India we call it in India we call it jack approach okay right like you have a jack you have an approach somewhere in uae i've heard that if you have strong vasta then things get really easy for you does it work like if i know somebody at some place and i have a connection with them and they are at the hierarchy of nepotism somewhere it works for me if the system allows for it so nobles will be broken to accommodate such a request how does uae allow people to have lions and tigers as pets? Allow is a big word and the misrepresentation of what's happening. People have ways to be able to bring those animals.

1:15:38Are they taking care of them? Are they looking after them? Or are they making a joke out of those animals? Or like we have all seen videos where they would see the tiger or the lion walking around between individuals and so on. This is not supposed to happen. One of the most fascinating things which I read during my research, you have something called Ministry of Possibilities. Yeah. What is that? It's an office in Emirates Towers. Have you seen, do you know Emirates Towers? They're also at the... Jumeirah? Yeah, so it's the start of Sheikh Zayed Road. Museum of Future. It's there, yeah. Yeah, there's an office there.

1:16:19And the idea was that officials can come from different entities and be able to solve issues that they think are impossible to solve or that they think they can't find solutions for. And believe it or not, a lot of work can be done when you bring all of those officials in one place from the federal level or from the local level, which is why in the same place, we also see there's government accelerators, for example. So that speeds up the process. Ministry of Possibilities is where you figure out very difficult problems. What are the benefits of being an Emirati? And what are the differences between an Emirati and a non-Emirati living in UAE?

1:17:03What perks do Emiratis get? We do get certain allowances. There is now this huge drive to get people married. and have more kids.

1:17:20It's quite fascinating because this was also a discussion that we had a few years back when we were discussing genetic testing. And the idea is to have, you know, like when you have, each emirate has its own now policy when it comes to this, but like you get certain support when it comes to your wedding expenses. You also get certain support when it comes to getting the plot of land and building that plot of land so that the financing that goes with it, those perks are there for Emiratis. And usually the, well, the plot of land is free and you also get interest-free loan to build that land. And if you need additional financing, you can get it also at good rates.

1:18:09But is every Emirati rich? No. why is this misconception that everybody with uae passport would be ultra rich like you guys everybody's from a royal family everybody's a sheikh um see i i can use also a personal story here i grew up uh with different circumstances uh and i when I got my first job and started making money or that was my salary and so on, there was always something that I needed to take care of. Not a want, a need. And I was also looking after my mother and then my mother retired. So in my case, I first helped in getting her house done so that she can have a house that she owns

1:19:11and she doesn't have to worry about like moving from one place to another. And then I had, for example, to build my own house. I have kids to look after. So like, it always seemed like there's always something that I needed to take care of. Doesn't mean I'm not better and more comfortable now. But that didn't just happen because I was born in the U.A. It happened because I worked really hard. I wanted to always develop personally and professionally, make more money by investing whatever that I'm getting, the bonuses I get because of my work. Like if you get a certain valuation, you get a bonus every year.

1:20:04And lately I was recognized and awarded because of my work in the UA India relationship. And like this started last year. So the top 10 ambassadors this year, I was one of them. And I got a medal and I got a monetary award. And so the next thing - Congratulations, by the way. Thank you so much. And like the medal, you get it once in a lifetime as a civilian. And you got it. And I got it. And believe it or not, the first thing that came to my mind is my mother was still paying for the housing financing that she got because that's the long-term one. Like you pay it over 20, 25 years. and it wasn't much but it was taking out of her pension on a monthly basis and I know that this could still be a thorn like it's a thorny thing when you have to think that there's something and I'm not saying this to position myself like I'm the good son, I'm far from that but the first thing that came to my mind is to go and settle that for her.

1:21:21Her birthday was a couple of weeks back and I sent her flowers. I was, I can't remember where I was and a message that says, you know, nice stuff, kind of stuff that you should say to your mother. And she said something that basically meant, I really hope your kids do for you, but you have done for me. And I don't think I would have wished for a better prayer. Especially when you live through life, believing that every single good thing that is happening to you is because of her prayers and because of my grandmother's prayers, because she has raised me as well. and because my father also has done so much to invest in my education and to make me the person that I am by getting me into his business and prepping me for life's challenges and allowing me to resolve for his issues.

1:22:38So I think that's everything that I wanted to achieve because if I manage to get that, to make her feel that, it's more important than anything else. How sweet. Yeah. You must be a proud son and your parents are also proud. I hope so. I really hope so. Express that. Again, I don't want to take it for granted because I have it. and don't get me wrong I mean I was also fortunate through my career and having all kinds of opportunities presented to me you know the deputy prime minister foreign minister he's not just my boss but we are also friends and if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have developed career wise to where I am today I mean the first Couple of years I was in his office, traveling the world, barely being seen by anyone.

1:23:48And when I walked in, I was the finance economics guy. And he made sure that I become someone that understands national relations and politics. And he was the one who proposed that I go to India when I did not think about being posted as a career because this was not my path. my path and even when I joined the ministry this was not the idea that I had in mind and today being in India is the best thing that ever happened to me career wise well perfect thank you so much for sharing your story and all my questions answering them so calmly and gracefully thank you so much thank you so much thank you it's been great it's a pleasure having you likewise looking forward to more conversation the next time in Bombay I'll take you to the cooler side which probably your protocol you know no please do and when you're in dubai we go for a hitch workout yes we'll do that i'm looking forward to it hi hello nice to meet you pleasure meeting you please have a seat i can have this to you or yes yes you can how are you doing very good you carry your water and coffee everywhere yes so uh not because well because one time i had someone come into my office in Delhi and they saw the water and they're like, ah, so you don't think Indian water, you get your own water.

1:25:10I'm like, no, no, no. It's just water with electrolytes. It's Indian water, but with electrolytes. Thank you so much for watching this episode until the end. Now, you have to do three things. First of all, subscribe to this channel because as much as you subscribe, we will get better and valuable guests for you. Number two, tell me in the comments what you liked in this episode so that you didn't repeat mistakes. and which guests you want to see in our podcast so that we can take them and give you more value and number 3 you have to share this episode because one conversation can change someone's life I'll see you next time until then keep figuring out

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