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Bessent: U.S. Needs Precision Manufacturing; Bessent: Tariff Revenue Will Provide Income Tax Relief; Carney's Liberals Win as Voters Rally Against Trump; Oil Prices Extend Declines Amid Trump's Trade War; CNN Speaks with CEO of Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing. Aired 9-9:45a ET

Aired April 29, 2025 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Well, on his 100th day back in the White House, Donald Trump's top economic official delivering a rosy

assessment of the U.S. President's policies. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking now at the White House, let's listen.

SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Director Kevin Hasset myself, Speaker Johnson, Leader Thune, Committee Chairman Jason Smith, and Senator

Crapo and the tax bill is moving forward. It is going to give permanent to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act, which will back to the question uncertainty.

It will give American business certainty. It will give American people certainty. And then President Trump is also adding the things for working

Americans that have talked about earlier, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on social security, making auto payments deductible, so

that will substantially address the affordability crisis.

And the other thing that I would note, and back to data, is that the Vanguard, one of the largest money management firms in America, said that

over the past 100 days, 97 percent of Americans haven't done a trade and in fact, individual investors have held tight while institutional investors

have panicked. So, individual investors trust individual -- the investors trust President Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Megan (ph) in the back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you detail for us exactly what we should expect, as far as relief on the auto tariff front. And then further, Mr. Secretary,

should we expect other industries to also get relief the way we've now seen for auto and tech as well?

BESSENT: I'm not going to go into the details the -- of the auto tariff relief, but I can tell you that it will go substantially toward reshoring

American auto manufacturing. And again, the goal here is to bring back the high-quality industrial jobs to the U.S.

President Trump is interested in the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past. We don't need to necessarily have a booming textile industry,

like where I grew up again, but we do want to have precision manufacturing and bring that back.

And another important, very important, function of this that does not get talked about enough is national security. President Trump, his overriding

the concern and belief is that economic security is national security. National security is economic security.

And we saw during COVID that our supply chains got cut off, and we need to bring back a lot of those supply chains, whether it's in semi-conductors,

medicines, the steel, and we have to on shore those so it's a combination of making trade free and fair and remedying this gaping national security

hole that he was left with.

(CROSSTALK)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I would just add, and again, the president will sign the executive order on auto tariffs later today,

and we will release it as we always do go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Based on the negotiation with the European Union. Is it hard to negotiate with the European Union?

BESSENT: Pardon?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you have any updates on the negotiation with the European Union?

BESSENT: I'm more involved the in the Asian negotiations. My observation would be, goes all the way back to Henry Kissinger statement. When I call

Europe, who do I call? So, we're negotiating with a lot of different interests. Some of the European countries have put on an unfair digital

service tax on our big internet provider, France and Italy.

Other countries, Germany and Poland, don't have that. So, we want to see that unfair tax of one of America's great industries removed. So, it's

going to be a give and take. So, they have some internal matters to decide before they can engage in an external negotiation.

LEAVITT: Edward (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Karoline. Mr. Secretary, so contacts I have in the business community say that they're basically frozen for long term

investment because of the uncertainty around tariffs. How long do you think President Trump has to make a deal before there's damage to the economy?

BESSENT: Look, I think that what we're seeing is that business leaders, they've gone into a pause, and I think we're going to give them great

certainty on this tax bill. And I think over the next couple weeks, as I said, we have 18 important trading relationships. We'll put China to the

side. 17 they are in motion.

[09:05:00]

And then, as I said yesterday, I think there's a very good chance we're going to get this tax bill done. And the tax bill is going to be very

powerful for domestic U.S. investments. So, what we are going to do one of the most powerful parts of President Trump, 2017 tax bill was full

expensing of equipment.

We are going to make that, as President Trump said in his speech to Congress, that will be retro-active to January 20th. The other thing that

we are looking to add is full expensing for factories. So, bring your factory back. You can fully expense the equipment and the building. We will

couple that with deregulation, cheap energy and regulatory certainty, and that will continue to make the U.S. the greatest destination for domestic

and foreign --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- if I can apologize. The president said that world leaders would like to meet with him in Rome, in Vatican City, I'm sorry

about trade, other than President Zelenskyy, who did the president meet with and about trade, and when could we get some of those deals?

LEAVITT: Look, the president met with President Zelenskyy, as you know, which we talked about, and the president continues to be engaged with his

fellow foreign leaders, fellow leaders around the world, in the European Union, you have seen many of them visit the White House.

I want to harp on in closing, the point the Secretary just made. On the campaign trail the president promised the American public that he was going

to make America the best country in the world to do business again, the lowest taxes, lowest regulation, lowest energy costs of anywhere in the

world.

And if you do business in the United States, you won't pay a tariff. You won't pay a price. That's not just good for companies around the world, but

it's good for the American worker. That's what this team is focused so hard on every day. We have work to do.

The Golden Age of America is underway, but as I pointed out in the beginning, there's a lot of reason for the American consumer, the American

CEO, the American small business owner, to be confident and optimistic about this president and where we're headed.

So, you will hear more from the president himself. Later this evening he is traveling to Michigan, as you all know, he'll make a stop at the Air Force

Base with Governor Whitmer, and then we will head to a rally tonight while we'll hear more from him directly. So, we'll see you in Michigan. Thank

you, guys.

ANDERSON: Well, there's quite a lot to unpack here, with two guests returning to our show today. Adam Posen is the President of the Peterson

Institute for International Economics. Also back with us, Bill Lee, Chief Economist at the Milken Institute.

Adam, let me start with you. Scott Bessent repeating now familiar line about his boss, quote President Trump creates what I would call strategic

uncertainty in negotiations. He then went on to say that we've created a process the aperture of uncertainty will be narrowing. There will be

certainty.

Now, you posted about this on Monday, and you talked about this sort of game theory, strategic uncertainty. But you went on to say in your post,

look, doesn't he get it? Nobody is buying this. It's already a failing strategy. Some of us warned that this would backfire. What do you make of

that? And what else we heard today?

ADAM POSEN, PRESIDENT, PETERSON INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS: Thank you for having me, Becky, and thanks for citing my posts and my

articles. I think there is a clear message that weaponizing uncertainty, or what President Nixon called the mad man theory, backfires in economic

affairs, because millions and billions of decisions are made independent of whatever you're negotiating bilaterally.

And also, because it's not like the nuclear talks, where people don't want to risk you going nuclear, its people are willing to risk big conflicts in

economics, because it cuts both ways. So, the Secretary of the Treasury is doing his job as he sees it, and he's going to keep saying that, but each

time he says it, it's less credible.

Because whether he or NEC Director Hasset or Commerce Secretary Lutnick, every time they say we're going to have deals, and there are no deals, but

also no process, it just further confirms. I mean, we have what the Japanese officials who came to the USA.

We have what the UK officials who came to the USA. We have what dozens of officials who are here for the IMF World Bank Spring Meetings have said,

which is they've got nothing to talk about because the other side the U.S. doesn't present any serious negotiations or discussions.

[09:10:00]

ANDERSON: Bill, what did you take out of what we've just heard from the Treasury Secretary? After all, this is Trump's top economic official on

Donald Trump's 100th day in office, one assumes addressing the press and wanting to deliver a message that will satisfy not just reporters in the

room, but, for example, the markets.

And I'm looking at what the markets are doing now, the DOW is off. It's dropped into negative territory since Bessent started talking. The S&P and

the NASDAQ also off. Look, they've had five winning sessions at the end of the day, and there will be some profit taking here, but there is certainly

still a sense of uncertainty out there. Isn't there?

WILLIAM LEE, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MILKEN INSTITUTE: It certainly is an uncertainty. But I think what we should focus on are the goals of the

administration when they came in, which is to restructure the U.S. economy and restructure the global trading system. That's a very ambitious policy

agenda.

And I think rather than just deal with the rhetoric, I'd rather see look at some of the facts. The administration has told us that they have received

commitments of over $1.5 trillion worth of foreign of investments in United States, and it's capped off by the Soft Bank, Open AI, Oracle deal, which

is over $500 billion in the most advanced technologies in the United States.

Which, and I think that's a good indication that foreign investors really take seriously the smaller government, lower taxes and fewer regulations

that the Trump Administration has promised. Now, I agree with Adam there --

ANDERSON: Stop you there for a moment. These are commitments we haven't seen those. Yeah, these were just commitments. And of course, these

commitments were pretty much made before the beginning of what has been this -- you know period of real uncertainty, of volatility in these

markets.

And look, I'm broadcasting here from the Gulf region, a region that, frankly -- you know is pretty supportive of a Donald Trump Administration,

is where much of this money, incoming money is coming from. But even here - - you know there is a sense of worry about just how unpredictable things are at this point and volatile.

They've seen, for example, a depreciation in the U.S. Dollar, these currencies pegged in this region to the U.S. Dollar. And there's a real

sense of -- you know what happens next? And that sense of uncertainty is not good for anybody, not least those who are looking to invest surely in

the United States.

LEE: Becky, let me identify the real source of uncertainty, which is a growing nagging sense that first President Trump political capital is being

dissipated by all this talk about tariffs, which is very minor part of the agenda, and the smaller government, lower taxes and fewer regulations, is

yet to be put in place, in full force, and that's the heart of as President Trump has said and -- investments at the heart of the agenda is to get

those items passed.

And I think even though we have investment commitments, they have not been withdrawn with all this uncertainty. As far as the dollar is concerned, I

want to remind everyone that the Federal Reserve Index of the dollar right now is at its highest level in the last five years, and over the last three

years it has -- is above the average.

So, we really have a very strong, overvalued dollar, and I think it's not surprising to see the markets bring it back down to a more reasonable

level, which would be good for our exporters. So, I think -- I think the assessment really is one where it's half empty, half full, kind of

assessment, and unfortunately, most of the reporting that's been done and the rhetoric from many of my peers and other economists has been to focus

on the half empty.

ANDERSON: William, if I could -- on the tariffs, of course, which is all Donald Trump has been talking about. Adam, come on.

POSEN: Yeah. Thank you. I agree with William on two points. First, that the tax cuts program is actually at least as important as the tariff mistakes.

And second, that we should be focusing on the actual policy and not the constant rhetoric, which just causes more mess.

But I don't think the goals of the policy, even if the people focus on them, are right. We've got a huge fiscal deficit that President Biden left

us with, and that is long term in the making. And the tax cuts that President Trump is advocating are going to make the deficit much larger.

And the additional tax cuts he's talking about, like on tips or on social security, are distortionary and costly, and then if they're going to call

the tariffs for revenue for those tax cuts, then they're going to end up misusing them.

So, it doesn't achieve a small government in any meaningful way. It doesn't include priest competitiveness. It just further increases the instability

of the U.S. economy, and that's not about rhetoric or about reporting, that's about the substance that they're not grappling with the fiscal

issues in a serious way.

[09:15:00]

LEE: I absolutely agree with Adam that the deficit and the debt burden really is the overwhelming problem for this administration and for every

administration since Clinton.

So, I think we - the U.S. said, long standing problem with the deficit, but I think the way of getting out of that deficit is to increase the

productivity U.S. economy and its revenue base, which is exactly what President Trump is trying to do, get more foreign capital into United

States, create more income employment for us.

ANDERSON: Right. Let's be quite clear, and we are beginning to hear about - - you know how the administration will attempt to deal with the fiscal deficit. What we're hearing on taxes, perhaps new to many of our viewers,

but what we have heard for 100 days is talk of tariffs and the -- and the main proponent of that narrative has been the U.S. President.

Now there are reports that Amazon is going to start posting the increased price of tariffs on goods on its site, and the White House was just asked

about those reports. Here's what they said about Amazon. Have a listen both, if you will.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: This is a hostile and political act by Amazon. Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden Administration hiked inflation to the highest level

in 40 years? And I would also add that it's not a surprise, because, as Reuters recently wrote, Amazon has partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.

So, this is another reason why Americans should buy American. It's another reason why we are on shoring critical supply chains here at home, to shore

up our own critical supply chain and boost our own manufacturing case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well, this could really underscore for the average American just how impactful these tariffs are correct, Adam?

POSEN: Again, thank you.

LEE: Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

POSEN: She went to me, Becky. Becky went to me, Bill. The issue is there is going to be inflation. How much remains to be determined. Private companies

should not be attacked for making their public transparent decisions, taking those kinds of attacks on a private company, which supposedly the

Republican Party wants to encourage, is scurrilous.

And most importantly, people are going to feel it with shortages, not just in consumer goods at Amazon, but they're going to feel it with as

presidents trying to avoid shortages in the auto supply chain, shortages and other supply chains. You don't start a tariff war with your largest --

one of your largest trading partners, without preparing ahead. But that's what they did.

LEE: Let me just say --

ANDERSON: Bill, apologies I'm bringing you in here. I know this is never the perfect way of doing an interview. A new CNN poll showing that the

majority of Americans, 59 percent believe that the economy has worsened under President Trump. So, I just want to get your response to what we've

just heard there from the White House on Amazon and the kind of wider narrative here.

LEE: Tariffs are not a source of inflation. They change relative prices. They increase the price of imports compared to domestically produce goods.

And the reason why -- the supply chain disruptions during COVID was so inflationary is because U.S. was also bombarded with a huge stimulus

package which allow people to spent. We don't have that stimulus package now.

So, I think the real issue is if people feel that they cannot afford the higher price imported goods. They look for alternatives, and overall

inflation will not change. And so, I think --

POSEN: That is lie.

LEE: Adam, you finished. Can you let me --

ANDERSON: Hold on Adam.

LEE: And so, inflation, overall, of a continuous increase in prices is not going to be raised by tariffs, if anything, right? People will just shift

their consumption to things that are cheaper and do without the more expensive goods. Now, it will take time to do that, and we will have a

temporary rise in the price level overall.

But again, once people adjust their budgets and are not given more money to spend, we won't have the kind of inflation we had under Biden. Now the -- I

think you're right to say that people are talking about price increases all the time, but the real issue is whether the price increases will stick, and

I have my doubts about that, unless they're given extra money to spend.

POSEN: Yeah --

(CROSSTALK)

ANDERSON: We are going to have to leave it there. It's good to have you both. I know that you -- that you don't agree on all points here, and it's

important that we get a healthy discussion and debate going on here about what's going on, on what is the 100th day of the Trump Administration, the

second Trump Administration, of course, good to have you both.

I've got to push on. We'll have you, back. President Trump may just have played a decisive role in an election outside of U.S. borders the political

plot twist driven by Anti-Trump sentiment is up next.

[09:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well, Canadian voters have spoken handing Interim Prime Minister Mark Carney a full mandate to lean, to stand up to President Trump. U.S.

President's, threats became a defining issue in Monday's federal election as CNN's Paula Newton reports from Ottawa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK CARNEY, CANADA PRIME MINISTER: Who's ready? Who's ready? Who is ready to stand up for Canada with me.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A rallying cry for Canadian sovereignty as Mark Carney declared victory in the country's federal

elections.

CARNEY: We are once again. We are once again at one of those hinge moments of history, our old relationship with the United States, a relationship

based on steadily increasing integration, is over. We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons.

NEWTON (voice-over): The Liberal Party Leader issuing a stunning rebuke to President Trump, as he promised his country would never yield to the United

States.

CARNEY: As I have been warning for months, America wants our land, our resources, our water, our country never. But these are not -- these are not

idle threats. President Trump is trying to break us so that America can own us that will never, that will never, ever happen.

NEWTON (voice-over): The 60-year-old former central banker also sending a message of unity to the millions that did not vote for him.

CARNEY: And my message to every Canadian is this, no matter where you live, no matter what language you speak, no matter how you voted, I will always

do my best to represent everyone who calls Canada.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, I would like to congratulate Prime Minister Carney.

NEWTON (voice-over): Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre conceded defeat early Tuesday, saying Carney had won enough seats to form a

razor thin minority government. Throughout his campaign, Carney rode a wave of anti-Trump sentiment since winning his party's leadership contest in the

landslide after Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down last month.

CARNEY: We are fighting unjustified U.S. tariffs.

NEWTON (voice-over): Trump's tariffs on imports from Canada and continued threats to annex the country as the 51st state only helped him ride that

wave to victory, Paula Newson, CNN Ottawa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[09:25:00]

ANDERSON: Well, coming up, Donald Trump has kept his friends here in the Gulf close since taking office, but oil prices have taken a hit in his

first 100 days. A look at how that could impact relationships in the region, if at all, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: All right. We're going to check in on Wall Street in just a few minutes when the U.S. markets open at 09:30 a.m. local time. We're about

two minutes shy of that. Before we get to Wall Street, let's take a closer look at how Donald Trump's first 100 days is impacting this region where I

am.

And of course, I'm broadcasting from our Middle East Programming Headquarters here in Abu Dhabi, particularly in regard to his seemingly

erratic trade agenda and the global uncertainty that that has caused Mr. Trump expected to come here, of course, to the UAE, as well as to Saudi

Arabia and Qatar in about two weeks-time for what will now be his second foreign trip since taking office, the first, of course, to the Pope's

funeral.

Well, Farouk Soussa is the Middle East, North Africa, Economist for Goldman Sachs, and he joins us now from London. And Farouk, I do want to drill down

and take a slightly deeper dive on countries individually, here in the Gulf. I just step back for a moment and in principle, how would you

describe the impact on this region, of these -- this global trade war, as it were, and certainly the uncertainty that that has caused?

FAROUK SOUSSA, MENA ECONOMIST, GOLDMAN SACHS INTERNATIONAL: Well, thanks very much for having me, Becky. I think the two aspects to it, I think --

you know, from a from a direct impact perspective, it doesn't really affect the region very much. There's very little U.S. trade done in the region.

And the tariffs that are being applied over are the lesser 10 percent tariffs, pretty much across the board. So, the direct impact isn't

something that concerns us enormously. It's the indirect impact I think that's going to be much larger, and that comes through two channels.

The first is through the financial channel. Countries that have large external financing requirements, that need to borrow a lot of money in

international capital markets are facing much higher costs and much --.

[09:30:00]

And the second is to oil markets, where, clearly lower oil prices are having a big impact on the oil export, because in the region.

ANDERSON: Yeah. Yeah, OK. I'm going to stop you for a moment. Jim Cramer of CNBC Mad Money Fame, ringing the bell on Wall Street today, and I'm just

going to bring up the markets. It was a fairly muted story as far as the futures markets were concerned, and a very similar opening it has to be

said Farouk on the markets today.

Investors will have been listening to Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, delivering what I guess he hoped would be a sort of fairly rosy

picture on Donald Trump's 100th day. He is Trump's top economic official. Didn't do the markets any favors today.

Investors, whether or not they're taking profits or just a little exhausted after what has been a five day or session winning streak, that is the

picture as things stand at present. Have you heard anything out of Scott Bessent, who's made pretty two significant speeches of late or Donald Trump

that has to your mind, done anything to really reassure international investors and investors from this region that we are moving towards a

period of more certainty?

SOUSSA: I'm not sure that there's a lot of violence in the idea that there's going to be more certainty. I was in D.C. last week for the --

World Bank meetings, and we had lots of discussions with lots of financial actors while there. I think that the general buzz word around is peak

tariffs.

And the idea that -- you know whatever happens next, there's an expectation that there'll be some sort of rowing back. And these kind of comments from

Mr. Bessent and others are kind of encouraging in that regard. But I think the bigger picture is that -- you know we are in a -- we are in a different

world.

The impact of whatever tariffs come on is probably going to be negative from a growth perspective, from an inflation perspective in the United

States. And it's probably going to have a negative impact on oil prices, which affects our region of course.

ANDERSON: Yeah. Let's do a bit of a deep dive here on the UAE. The Emirates sent a high-level delegation to the U.S. in March, which included the

National Security Advisor and brother to the President. The UAE is pledged, or committed certainly, or said it will commit 1.4 trillion in investment

in the course of the next 10 years.

And that includes things like AI data centers and energy interestingly, also a pledge to build an aluminum smelter in the U.S. What's the UAE's

strategy to your mind?

SOUSSA: Well, we've heard similar players coming out of Saudi Arabia as well. I think the overall desire within the region is really to remain

relevant, to remain close to the most important ally, both on the security and an economic front, which is the United States.

And I think the decisions and this exploration of opportunities, investment opportunities, such as the ones that we've just described, are really part

of just cementing the long term geo political and geo economic, strategic relationship, which is very, very important for the region and will remain

so for the foreseeable future.

ANDERSON: Saudi Of course, similarly, pledging about 600 billion in trade and investments. And the Crown Prince spoke to Trump on the phone. I mean,

he's trying to get that number up north of $1 trillion as well. I just want to come back to the oil markets, because this is really important.

You mentioned this twice the impact of global uncertainty and forecast of lower global growth, hurting the oil price, which you say, in turn, of

course, has an impact in this region. Countries like the UAE and Saudi diversifying their economies. They are less dependent on oil than they

were, and they have a different sort of fiscal setup as it were going forward.

How big a drag on these economies will this lower oil price be to your mind? And how low can it go before there is serious concern?

SOUSSA: Sure, there are a couple of things I'd say. First is that certainly the tariffs and concerns around U.S. essential, probably the primary driver

of low oil prices. But it's also OPEC Plus policy, the unwinding of the voluntary cuts to production that is also creating supply side pressures on

the oil price.

[09:35:00]

In terms of where we think oil prices are going, I think -- you know our team thinks that we're probably going to be around 62 -- more or less at

the end of this year, and in the high 50s next year, which implies some downside from where we are. At that level, the impact on the region is

fairly uneven.

The likes of the UAE have a fairly low what we call a break-even oil price. That means that they continue to run surpluses with oil, fiscal surpluses

with oil in the $55 region. Saudi Arabia's break-even oil price is around $90 which means that we expect very large deficits to open up in Saudi

Arabia.

So, prior to April 2nd, when our world view was really that was going to be in the low 70s, we were expecting -- you know something like 30 to $35

billion in deficit in Saudi Arabia, and now expecting closer to 50.

ANDERSON: That's a significant change. It's good to have you, sir. I want to take a break. I'll have you back. Thank you very much indeed for joining

us. And we are taking a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well, the UAE is seeing a boom in hospitality and in tourism in the first quarter of this year. Dubai welcomed over 5 million visitors.

That's 3 percent up on the same time last year and 2024 was a record year for international overnight visitors to the city.

Now this week, Dubai is hosting the Arabian Travel Market event where our Eleni Giokos caught up with His Excellency Issam Kazim, who is the CEO of

Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing. And he explained how the city is coping with the influx.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

H.E. ISSAM KAZIM, CEO OF DUBAI CORPORATION FOR TOURISM AND COMMERCE MARKETING: The way that we designed the city and our approach has been a

very nimble and an agile Model which allows us to change and our focus and shift our focus as and when there's a big demand coming in or potential

demand coming in from certain markets.

And you can see that post COVID, we managed to very quickly in 2023 catch up to the record-breaking numbers that we had seen year-on-year since 2014

and last year again, in 2024 we saw 9 percent growth on that record year.

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 18.72 million people, visited Dubai. That's incredible.

KAZIM: Yes. International visitors coming to Dubai, right?

GIOKOS: Who is coming to Dubai when you say international visitors?

KAZIM: To be honest with you, it's from all over the world.

GIOKOS: Yeah.

KAZIM: That we see some of them sustaining that growth that we've seen, because we've already reached, I would say, in terms of -- in terms of the

capacity and input, that influx that we get from tourists. So, we're constantly working with our partners at Emirates Airlines by Dubai, as well

as international carriers, to see how we can increase more supply into the city, because there is a demand, and we can see that.

But at the same time, what we're doing is with the diversified approach, we're constantly looking at knocking doors of new markets. We can see with

our campaigns, where we started initially in 2014 with 7 or 8 markets today were active in more than 80 markets around the world.

[09:40:00]

And we're constantly seeing that with every campaign that we do, there's a surge in search for Dubai. So, there's a lift in terms of people interested

in to understand more what Dubai has to offer.

GIOKOS: Give me a sense of how you're approaching the geopolitical environments in the region, and whether that's a concern for U.S. at all?

KAZIM: Look, I mean, for us, if you look at it, historically, Dubai has always been in this region, right?

GIOKOS: Yeah.

KAZIM: And unfortunately, a lot of the headlines have always been things that might make people like paranoid or worried, especially the ones who

are further afield, right? Lately, people start to realize more and more that there are 200 nationalities that make up 90 percent Dubai's

population.

And these are massive advocates telling their friends and family about the safe environment that Dubai has, and that's why we started to see Dubai not

really being impacted by the regional impact, because they realize that even the regional ones are considerably far away from Dubai, right?

And I think it's important for people to understand that, because for us, safety and security is paramount, is one of the most important things that

Dubai has built its success on.

GIOKOS: Let's talk about this Henley & Partners Report that came out the 50 top cities for millionaires in the world, and Dubai ranks 19. But if you

drill into those numbers, the amounts of millionaires that have increased between 2014 to 2024 that's up by 102 percent which is phenomenal. Dubai

currently has 20 billionaires, according to this report. Tell me what's attracting high net worth individuals into Dubai?

KAZIM: I think from the millionaire perspective, there might be more. I think the --millionaires will be the lion share of that big number. But I

think look, whenever we do something in Dubai, the city, we focus a lot on the resident community, right? So, building the right infrastructure to be

able to help and support the industry to grow and reach their maximum potential as well, right?

And it's not about setting them up and then forgetting about them. It's really being with them alongside that as a partner throughout the journey.

And I think that, in itself, has lent itself perfectly for a lot of the international communities who are looking for newer spaces for them to be

able to then accelerate their own growth.

And I think what we've done here for our resident population has now been considered by others, and that's why you see a lot more people relocating

to Dubai. And we had an active program focusing on high-net-worth individuals looking for new destinations, setting up the regional HQ,

setting up their global HQ, or even setting up an SME and really taking full advantage of what Dubai has to offer.

Let's not forget, a lot of people in the past would think about Dubai and the UAE, thinking that that's the market. What they need to realize is, and

they are realizing a lot more today, is that within four hours, you've got 1/3 of the world's population at your disposal, and within an eight-hour

flight, very comfortable, you have two thirds of the world's population at your doorstep.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Issam Kazim speaking to Eleni Giokos. World Sport after this short break. We will have more "Connect the World" in about 15 minutes.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)

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