Smart city investment

The President of Belarus met with Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Managing Director of the Emirati company Emaar Properties. The main topics of the meeting were the implementation of the Northern Waterfront project in Minsk and co-operation in the information technology sector. Welcoming the guest, Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed, “I am glad to meet with you again. You have long been a friend of Belarus. You come here often. We appreciate such an approach to work. You are always welcome in Belarus, especially since you come with specific proposals every time. Northern Waterfront, that you intend to implement, is a project of a huge scale. I think no other projects in Belarus have been as big as this one.”

This is what the International Exhibition Centre will look like

Co-operation in the field of IT technologies was another topic of the meeting. The President noted that the Emirates have made significant progress in this area. “I am grateful to you for arranging the meeting with leading experts in artificial intelligence in the Emirates. Back then I realised that Belarus still had a lot of work to do to advance to the level that you achieved together with specialists from around the world,” said the Head of State.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also added, “In addition to these major projects, I remember our meetings and agreements, discussions of other projects that could be implemented here, in Belarus, by representatives of big business from the Emirates. If you are interested, we are ready to revisit these projects, including projects in agriculture, food (a very topical issue now) and many other projects that we once discussed.”
Foreign guest thanked the Belarusian Head of State for the meeting and warm welcome, “Thank you very much for the special hospitality you offer. This hospitality is not even towards an ordinary guest, but a friend and brother. It always touches my heart.”
Mohamed Ali Alabbar highly appreciated the state support of the IT sector in Belarus. Addressing the President, the businessman emphasised,

“What you have done is important for the world. Back then you paid a lot of attention to the High-Tech Park, and at that time it was just the beginning. Today we see that technology drives the development of the entire world. If we take the population of Belarus and correlate it with the development of IT services that the country exports, this will be much higher in comparison with many Western countries.”

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The co-owner of major international companies in e-commerce, catering, fashion and design Mohamed Ali Alabbar is considered one of the biggest and most successful businessmen in the UAE. He is an advisor on economic and investment issues to the leaders of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. In fact, he is the mastermind and executor of the concept of modern Dubai. Emaar Properties is present in the markets of 40 countries. The investor is implementing a large-scale project to build a smart city in Minsk, which was called the Northern Waterfront. It is essentially a city within a city with a total investment of $4.5 billion. As part of the project, residential buildings with all the necessary infrastructure, kindergartens, schools, a university, sports facilities, and healthcare facilities will be built. The complex will also feature the International Exhibition Centre, the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and the Minsk World Trade Centre. The investment project will be running till 2040.

Based on materials of sb.by and belta.by