11月28日上午，在2021亚洲青年领袖论坛“国际金融与投资合作”主题论坛中，阿联酋经济部创业和中小企业助理次长费萨尔·哈马迪（Faisal Al-Hammadi）发表了题为《推动阿联酋成为青年人才的关键目的地》的主旨演讲。

全文如下：

尊敬的各位来宾，女士们，先生们:

大家早上好！

我希望你们所在的地方已经是早上了。我是费萨尔·哈马迪，是阿联酋经济部创业和中小企业助理次长，很荣幸能参加2021亚洲青年领袖论坛，该论坛旨在充分发掘青年人的潜力从而塑造未来。

阿联酋和中国之间一直保持着战略伙伴关系，阿联酋将中国视为最重要的伙伴之一。此时此刻，中国是阿联酋最大的全球贸易伙伴，我们的战略伙伴关系在共同价值观和相互信任的基础上继续蓬勃发展。近年来，随着阿联酋和中国之间的几次高层互访，我们签署了各种协议，以期在未来加强两国在多级别和不同领域合作。因此，在2021年上半年，两国之间的非石油贸易额接近290亿美元，与2020年同期相比增长了25%。我们的战略伙伴关系在医疗保健领域也显而易见，国药集团在阿联酋的新冠疫苗生产为全球抗击疫情的合作树立了榜样。此外，阿联酋境内有四千多家中国企业，雇用了近四十万劳动力。

女士们、先生们，回到论坛的主题，请允许我分享阿联酋关于促进青年参与公共政策制定的经验。阿联酋政府将年轻人视为未来最具宝贵的资产。2016年，阿联酋设立了青年事务国务部长一职，证明政府对青年人的能力充满信心。沙马·马兹鲁伊阁下被任命为第一位青年事务国务部长，并因此成为世界上最年轻的部长。为了进一步促进青年发展和赋权，我们还专注于创业。在这个月，我们启动了一项标志性项目“创业之国”。这个项目全面展示了阿联酋的企业家精神，它包括三个主要支柱。

第一个是扇贝学院。扇贝学院的目标是在不同的人群中建立创业的心态，重点关注全阿联酋的学生、大学生以及校友。我们为学生设计了多个项目，主要通过建立和运行虚拟公司来学习成为企业家所需的条件，同时还通过竞赛来展示最具创造性和创造力的商业理念。我们希望学生思考他们将来会建立哪些公司，而不是考虑他们要从事的职业。

第二个支柱针对的是公司的启动阶段。我们已经设计了多个项目来促进和支持公司在早期阶段的建立。

第三个支柱侧重于公司发展的最后阶段，即规模化阶段。目前，我们已经设计了多个关键赛道来帮助公司成为独角兽公司。

我们特别关注五条赛道。第一条是数字化，旨在帮助公司释放数字工具和概念的价值。第二条是出口促进，使这些公司的产品更容易和更快地进入新的市场。第三条是获得融资，无论是股权投资还是贷款，为公司的增长提供合适的金融支持。第四条是全球扩张，旨在支持公司将阿联酋作为他们的启动平台，在新的市场建立自己的地位。最后是商业支持计划，旨在提高这些公司的效率和生产力。

我们非常乐观地认为，这些努力将推动我们实现这一愿景，即在未来10年成功孵化20家独角兽公司。我们的目标是使阿联酋成为企业家、投资者和人才的关键目的地。

女士们、先生们，任何国家的未来都掌握在年轻人的手中，我们非常愿意为推动亚洲其他国家的青年赋权作出贡献。最后，我祝愿本次论坛取得巨大成功，并祝愿大家在参与中获得最大收获！

谢谢大家！


On 28 November, Faisal Al-Hammadi, Acting Assistant Undersecretary for Entrepreneurship and SMEs of the Ministry of Economy of the United Arab Emirates, delivered a keynote speech at the International Finance and Investment Cooperation Forum of the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021.

The full speech is as below.

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, 

A very good morning to everyone. I hope it is already morning over there. My name is Faisal Al-Hammadi. I am the Assistant Under-Secretary for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises at the Ministry of Economy in the United Arab Emirates. I am honored to join you today at the Asia Youth Leaders Forum 2021, which aims at fully leveraging the potential of youth in shaping the continents in the future.

The ties between the United Arab Emirates and China have always been strategic and at the forefront of our agenda here in the United Arab Emirates. As we speak, China is the UAE’s largest global trading partner. Our strategic partnership continues to flourish based on shared values and mutual trust. The exchange of several high-level visits between the United Arab Emirates and China over the recent years have witnessed the signing of various agreements, aiming at enhancing cooperation at different levels, and also in sectors of the future. As a result, the value of non-oil trade exchange between both countries amounted to nearly 29 billion US dollars during the first half of 2021, a 25% growth compared to the same period in 2020. Our strategic partnership is evident in the health care sector as well. The manufacturing of Sinopharm vaccines here in the UAE sets a global example of cooperation in the fight against the pandemic. Also, the United Arab Emirates is home to more than four thousand Chinese companies that employ close to four hundred thousand people.

Ladies and gentlemen, 

Coming back to the forum theme, allow me to share the UAE’s experience in enhancing youth engagement and governance in public policy making. The government of the United Arab Emirates sees young people as its greatest assets of the future. In 2016, the position of the Minister of State for Youth was created in a testament to the government’s confidence in young capabilities. Her Excellency Shamma Al Mazrui was appointed the first Minister of State for Youth, to become the youngest Minister in the world. To further second the efforts for youth development and empowerment we have also focused on entrepreneurship, in this month, we launched our flagship movement the Entrepreneurial Nation. It is a movement that provides a holistic view towards entrepreneurship in the United Arab Emirates.

It consists of three main pillars. The first one is a Scallop Academy. This Scallop Academy targets on building an entrepreneurial mind-set across the different segments of the population. It has a strong focus on students in schools across the UAE and also university students and alumni. Multiple programs have been designed for students to learn what it takes to become an entrepreneur, mainly through building and running virtual companies and, also complementing that, with competitions to showcase the most innovative and creative business ideas. We want the students to think of which companies they will establish in the future rather than which career they are going to pursue. 

The second pillar targets the start-up phase of companies. Multiple programs have been designed to facilitate and support the establishment of companies in their early stages.

Moving to the third pillar, it focuses on the last stage of the companies’ development, which is the scale-up stage. Multiple key tracks have been designed to help companies in their journey towards becoming unicorns. 

We have special focus on those five tracks. The first one is digitization 

It aims at helping companies unlock the value of digital tools and concepts. Second, export promotion for the products of this companies to reach new markets easier and faster. Third is access to funding, be it equity or debt. It will provide the right level of financial support for your companies’ growth. Fourth is global expansion. It aims at supporting companies to establish themselves in new markets, with the United Arab Emirates being their launchpad. And finally, it is the business support programs. It aims at increasing the efficiency and productivity of these companies.

We are very optimistic that these efforts will take us closer to the fulfillment of the vision to make the UAE a home to 20 unicorns over the next ten years.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The future of any nation lies in the hands of its youth, and we are more than keen to contribute to driving forward youth empowerment among other Asian nations. Before concluding, I wish this forum a great success and a most rewarded participation to everyone. Thank you.