HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and Prime Minister of The UAE and Ruler of Dubai is a champion of the people.

Although his ascension to become ruler of Dubai was just 15 years ago, his role in the growth of UAE and Dubai started before the founding if the UAE itself.

His list of achievements cannot be exaggerated, nor can we ever properly do justice to them. But on his birthday, we at Lovin Dubai wanted to pay our tributes to an exceptional leader!

His age is countable, but his contributions aren’t.

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Here some of the amazing things that Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has done taken from a non-exhaustive list.

The youngest police force head in the world

After his military training, HH Sheikh Mohammed returned to Dubai in 1968. It was then he was appointed his first official position. The Head of The Dubai Police Force and the Dubai Defence Force. This made him the youngest defence minister in the world! He served in this position till 1970 after which he was given an even more deserving title.

He was the first Minister of Defence Of The Emirates

With the unification of the five Emirates, UAE was founded in 1971 December. At this point, the future Sheikh was only 22 years of age. But even though he was young, he always dealt with his duties tactfully and effectively which rightfully earned him the position of the Minister of Defence of UAE. This is also a position he still holds today.

He created a boom in the economy with The Dubai Shopping Festival

In late 1995, he orchestrated the iconic Dubai Shopping Festival. DSF became a huge contributor to the wealth of the UAE. The first festival in 1996 alone brought in more than one million and a half people and over 500 million dollars were spent during the one-month event. These statistics only kept growing.

 

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He is a long time best selling poet!

HH Sheikh Mohammed first started publishing his Nabati Poetry in newspapers under several pen names, Nedawi and sleet to name a few. He did this because he wanted people to genuinely appreciate his poetry and not admire it because of his position. His poems cover a wide range of topics from current affairs to romances. His poetry is unique as it promotes people to compose Nabati verses. He does this by embedding riddles in his poems. He encourages questions through his riddles. His English language poem collection known as ‘Poems of the Desert’ published in 2009 had been on the bestseller list for over two years!

He started many billion-dollar companies

The Sheikh has been the leading force of many businesses in Dubai which now have global acclaim. Dubai World founded on July 2, 1969, and Dubai Holding founded in October 2004, which has many economic assets, was grown through the guidelines of counselling of Sheik Mohammed. He founded Dubai Ports International and Dubai Port Authority, (Now known as DP World as of 2005) for overseas acquisitions and management contracts. He also started Emirates Aviation on March 25 1985, Godolphin in 1994 and many more iconic organisations.

His policies led to the real estate noom!

Under the Sheikh’s rule, Dubai saw incredible population growth in the ’90s, which in turn saw a boom in the real estate market. Something that also helped was the law he enforced that allowed foreigners to purchase property in Dubai.

He headed the development of Dubai Airports

Through the 1970s and ’80s, Sheikh Mohammed oversaw the Dubai Civil Aviation. One of the things he did in this role was introduce the first Dubai Airshow, which now has over 1000 companies exhibiting.  And also in this role, he was responsible for launching one of the greatest airline companies in the world, Emirates Airline. He also headed the development of both the Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport. All of this laid the foundations that would create the tourist boom! He implemented an open skies policy, which frees commercial air carriers to make decisions without the interference of governments. He was behind the commencement of FlyDubai, the low-cost air carrier.

He improved and saved millions of lives around the world

The Mohammed Bin Rashid Global Initiatives, a charitable foundation, founded in 2015, had merged the work of 33 charitable groups. He also instituted several philanthropic awards. He started several foundations for health, education, and even culture. Their initiatives have helped over 40 million people in 99 countries. They made the largest infrastructure and logistics system in the world to help eradicate poverty. They’ve contributed tremendously to the fight against the spread of disease and to help educate children around the world.

He one of the most knowledgeable equestrian Enthusiasts in the World

HH Sheikh Mohammed’s genius can be seen even in sports! In 1992, Sheikh Mohammed had started ‘wintering’ his horses in Dubai, which went against the advice of trainers and pundits in the UK. But the Sheikh was right to do so as this method led to a string of high-profile wins. In 1994, he founded Godolphin, A leading Horse Racing stable. Sheikh Mohammed was internationally recognised as a Horse owner and was even awarded the Special Eclipse Award in 2001.

A very happy birthday from Lovin Dubai!