It has been one year since Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan passed away, but the influence of the visionary leader continues to be felt on all walks of life in the UAE and will continue to be in the years to come because of the great legacy he has left behind.
 Mourners pay their respects in Sharjah in 2004 |
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Shaikh Zayed's influence on the nation he founded and the people whose lives were regularly touched by his nobility and generosity remains very much alive.
And despite the fact that the country he loved so dearly does not feel the same without its father and the architect of its development, his unique vision, his wise policies, and his generous humanitarian initiatives continue to guide the march.
The late president also invested heavily in education and human resources building.
In the UAE today, citizens and expatriates feel proud to belong to this land regardless of their geographic and ethnic backgrounds.
The UAE, the most successful example of regional integration in modern Arab history, has moved within years of Shaikh Zayed's accession to a modern urbanised country without losing its cultural or religious heritage.
The grief-stricken nation decided from the first day after Shaikh Zayed's passing away that it is the shared responsibility of all to continue on the same path.
And that adds to the late president's legacy as it has been proved that Shaikh Zayed had indeed built a modern country with solid foundations — a country whose policies would not change upon the death of its leader.
Thus, the policies which made Shaikh Zayed truly the Wise Man of the Arabs continue to be exercised by the President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Shaikh Zayed has left a strong and modern forward-looking nation. Its rapidly rising growth — economic and social — is proof of it.
And with Shaikh Khalifa at the helm, it will continue to be so.
