The American Bloomberg Agency said that the future of Dubai is in the “hands of two very different princes”, the two sons of its ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, noting that the first “tops the media and the other is a man of numbers.”
In a detailed report, the agency reviewed the personal characteristics of the two men, who are not more than 40 years old, the “responsibility” they bear, and the extent of their current impact on the city, amid intense regional “pressures” and “competition.”
The report said that Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, 39, the crown prince of Dubai, and his brother Sheikh Maktoum, 38, “have been tasked with maintaining the city’s position as a business center in the Middle East.”
And Sheikh Hamdan, nicknamed “Fazza”, a word that means a rush to help others, was appointed crown prince, in 2008, bypassing his older brother Sheikh Rashid, who died in 2015 at the age of 33.
Since their father, the 73-year-old ruler of Dubai, “gives them more responsibility, they have made a place for them” in the city.
“Think of it as a company,” said Nasser al-Sheikh, the former director general of Dubai’s Department of Finance, who helped guide the emirate through the 2009 debt crisis. “Hamdan is the chairman and Maktum is the CEO. Hamdan is the face of Dubai and the crown prince, but Decisions in all cases are taken after consultation between the two brothers.
The two young sheikhs face “the task of protecting Dubai’s position as a preeminent business hub in the Middle East amid competition from regional rivals and international scrutiny in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine.”
The two brothers need to maintain a “delicate balance of power within the Emirates”. This comes after Dubai’s leadership persuaded Abu Dhabi to refocus on business and the economy, and to a lesser extent on foreign policy, which led to military clashes in conflicts stretching from Yemen to Libya and Turkey.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is posing another challenge by wanting to emulate Dubai as a magnet for foreign talent and investment.
Sheikh Hamdan .. “Dubai Front”
The report presents the features of Sheikh Hamdan’s personality, and says that his accounts on social media are filled with official photos, but he also has pictures while skydiving, climbing mountains, riding horses, or standing on top of the tallest tower in the world.
He has 14.6 million followers on Instagram, more than the population of the UAE, and mingles with people in malls and restaurants in Dubai, which is a continuation of his father’s friendly leader image.
Hamdan accompanies his father in most of the meetings with other rulers in the sheikhdoms of the Emirates, and heads the Executive Council of the Emirate of Dubai, which includes his brother.
The council’s website says Hamdan is “a young and dynamic personality” that has helped him build relationships with Dubai residents.
He is also the chairman of the emirate’s sovereign wealth fund.
The charismatic crown prince is chief marketing officer in a city built on glamor and its ability to attract capital and millions of tourists. Sheikh Hamdan has proven to be pivotal to Dubai as a financial market this year, as he handles the decisions of all the sprawling institutions in the state-run emirate “.
Maktoum .. “Man of Numbers”
His brother Maktoum appears “as a man who may be less visible in the city’s social scene, but whose influence is praised by foreign investors and keeps executives in government-run companies on their toes.”
Sheikh Maktoum came into the spotlight when he was appointed Minister of Finance in September 2021 after the death of his uncle.
He drew the attention of investors because of his role in selling shares to companies owned by the emirate, after they had called for years to list those companies to boost the stock market in Dubai.
He has a firm role in the matter of auditing the financial resources of state-controlled companies in Dubai, some of which were part of the Dubai financial crisis in 2008.
Since assuming the presidency of the Financial Audit Authority, the young sheikh has ordered financial investigations into many government companies when suspected of possible corruption, according to people familiar with the matter, who also said that he “makes official meetings short, serious and to the point.”
A banker told the agency that Sheikh Maktoum, who is deputy prime minister and deputy ruler of Dubai, sometimes requests updates on specific projects late at night or on weekends.
Financial analyst Tariq Fadlallah said: “A positive change has occurred in the UAE stock exchanges since Sheikh Maktoum took power. He is from a generation that is comfortable with rapid change.”
Sheikh Maktoum aims to ensure that the crisis of 2009, when the city required a $20 billion bailout from Abu Dhabi, does not happen again.
At the time, when he was in his early twenties, and Dubai was on the verge of default, he summoned Nasser Al Sheikh, the city’s chief financial officer at the time, to review the financial situation. “He asked me to sit with him and go through the numbers,” the sheikh told Bloomberg. “He wanted to know exactly where the tension points were and what caused them.”
Dubai is now facing new obstacles, according to the report. The UAE is facing accusations of “deficiencies” in addressing the issue of illicit money flows, but since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, international scrutiny has increased over how Dubai deals with illicit financing.
Bloomberg notes that with Saudi Arabia attracting foreign talent that may have ended up in Dubai, the UAE has responded quickly to make the country more attractive to foreign companies and encourage expats.
“Sheikh Maktoum is currently playing the role assigned to him, and it is a specific and technical role,” said Najla Al Qasimi, a researcher at the Dubai Center for Public Policy Research, who also served as an ambassador for the UAE.
“Sheikh Hamdan’s role as crown prince is more political,” she says. “He is very popular with the locals and tribes and is also able to connect and attract the large expat community in Dubai.”
The report says that Dubai’s future “depends on the dynamic between the two brothers, with Sheikh Hamdan eventually succeeding his father as the face of the city, while Sheikh Maktoum cements his role as a man of numbers.”