We want to be No. 1, says Sheikh Mohammed

Asked in a CNN interview how much further he wants to go following the rapid rise of the UAE on the world map, he said: “We want to be number one.”

Sheikh Mohammed, also vice president of the UAE, also dismissed talk of extremists possibly targeting Dubai.

He said: “They have not made any problems for us, you know, they’re living together and they have an interest to come here, so they work and they send home some money from here, so they don’t want to spoil that.”

And he denied that the recent increase in salaries for government workers in the UAE was a direct response to the Arab Spring where citizens elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa have risen up to protest against their rulers.

Sheikh Mohammed said: “No, it is not because of the Arab Spring, we did it before the Arab Spring started and we did it many times before. If you look in the past 10 years, you will see we have doubled salaries several times.”

Asked about the issue of press freedom in the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed said: “As long as they [media] do not say something wrong about a person or whatever it is, they can say things they want and as I told you, we are not perfect, we are still learning.”

Answering a question about democracy, he said: “We have our own democracy. You cannot transport your democracy to us.”

Asked whether the UAE’s succession will continue to pass from father to son, he answered: “As long as people want that.”

Last month, the president of the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, promised greater political rights to citizens.

Home to business hub Dubai and major oil producer Abu Dhabi, the UAE has said it is committed to gradual political reforms, but has given no timetable.

The interview also touched on the punishment facing those who fail to pay their mortgage, with Sheikh Mohammed stressing: “Some laws may be strict but we don’t put in jail everybody who comes here.”