To: [email protected][[email protected]]; Jeffrey [email protected]] From: Sultan Bin Sulayem Sent: Tue 12/6/2011 6:40:18 PM Subject: Transcript of Shaikh Mohammed's interview with CNN Transcript of Shaikh Mohammed's interview with CNN 6 December 2011, 9:55 PM In what she described as a `rare' chance, Erin Burnett, the anchor of CNN's OutFront, interviewed His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Monday, December 12, 2011. [http://www.khaleejtimes.com/images/mohd-cnn-061211.jpg]Courtesy: CNN The following is a transcript of the interview: Erin Burnett: I began by asking the Shaikh if his ambition of Dubai has changed since the real estate crisis. Shaikh Mohammed: I don't call it crisis, it is a challenge. This is a challenge you know. All good leaders are there when things are alright. But it takes a good leader at a crisis like that. Erin Burnett: What about the real estate market here? Is the Europeans crisis affecting Dubai? Shaikh Mohammed: Of course, I mean, even the American crisis or the European crisis, they are affecting the market. But we are here better than anywhere else, we got out of the crises and now we are back building again. But just to remind you, at the time of the crisis, we completed the tallest building, the metro and the Meydan project, all during the crisis, all the big project we have not stopped. We only stopped, for a year or two, some projects that were on the paper. Erin Burnett: What is your view of the Arab Spring? Shaikh Mohammed: I have said in 2004, I said please change or you will be changed. Erin Burnett: You are talking about Arab governments. Shaikh Mohammed: The Arab governments; the Arab Spring is [about] the people who have waited for a long time (for change to happen) and some governments are serving themselves and not their people who want to work. Erin Burnett: Some people have said they