Former UAE minister and eminent businessman Mohammed Saeed Al Mulla passes away

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The UAE lost the former minister and an economist and businessman, Muhammad Saeed Al Mulla, who had major contributions in establishing a number of non-oil Emirati institutions that have become pillars of the diversified national economy.

Muhammad Saeed Al Mulla was born in Al Shindagha, Dubai, in 1926, and grew up in the emerging city, which was groping for its path as a center for trade and pearl hunting.

Muhammad Saeed Al Mulla made his way early in the world of commerce in 1952, when he travelled to Burma via Calcutta (India) to buy wood, coffee and rice.

The pearl industry was the main source of income for Dubai, and it faced the challenge of Japanese pearl farms, which introduced many merchants in the Gulf region, with experience in sea navigation, to the market for re-exporting gold to India.

Al Mulla was one of the merchants who entered this business, and was successful enough to enter the Council of Merchants at the start of entrepreneurship projects in Dubai.

With the discovery of oil and the launch of the infrastructure building workshop and projects, Al Mulla established a construction company in the mid-sixties, and won a number of bids, before taking on the task of building the first palace for the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, in Al Ain.

First National Bank

Among his most prominent contributions to Dubai was the establishment of the National Bank of Dubai as the first national bank in the emirate (now Emirates NBD), and since 1965 he was the first Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which was established in that year in order to play a vital role in improving the business climate. Support and protect the interests of the business community in the Emirate.


The role of the chamber was to encourage and regulate the business affairs of the city. It started with over 500 registered companies which grew to 3,000 in the subsequent five years. The Chamber also administered commercial disputes, including the regulation of promissory notes, which had not previously been subject to regulation.

Likewise, Al Mulla was one of the founders of Emirates Post, the institution that issued the first set of postage stamps in January 1961, noting that the first postal agency in Dubai was opened in August 1909 as an agency.

Ministerial positions

With the establishment of the Union State, Al Mulla held a number of ministerial positions, including Minister of State for Union and Gulf Affairs, Acting Minister of Electricity, and Minister of Transport and Communications in 1971.
He was the first Chairman of the Board of Directors of Emirates Transport in the period (1981-1997), and the first Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Company. Telecommunications - «Etisalat», which was founded on August 30, 1976, and he was one of its founders.

On May 2, 1975, the late Sheikh Zayed, in his capacity as President of the UAE, issued Resolution No. 2 of 1975 to form a founding committee to prepare a draft permanent constitution for the state. The first article of the decision mentioned the names of the members of the founding committee, who are 28 of the country's personalities. The name of Muhammad Saeed Al-Mulla was among them.

Minister of Transport and Communications

As for the second ministerial formation in 1973 headed by the late Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, he was assigned the transport file because of his accumulated experience in the field of post and communications.

And when Sheikh Maktoum reconstituted the federal government in 1977, Al-Mullah kept the file of the Ministry of Communications, as well as with the fourth government in 1979. Al-Mullah kept the same ministerial portfolio in the fifth formation in 1990, before Ahmed Humaid Al-Tayer replaced him in the sixth ministerial formation in 1997.

Private job

In 1978, Al-Mulla decided to devote himself to his own business with the participation of his children. In early February 1978, he established the “Mohammed Saeed Al Mulla and Sons Private Limited Company.” The main objectives of the company are to acquire stakes and shares in other companies and to engage in any trade or other business of any kind.

This business entity began to grow, expand and diversify in the fields of its investments and business under the management of Al Mulla in the fields of engineering, business management and others. The American in Dubai, while the real estate company's portfolio includes Al Mulla Plaza, among other projects.

Muhammad Saeed Al-Mulla passed away, on Thursday, February 2, 2023, at the age of 97, after a life full of work, giving, and achievement in several sectors.