President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan has ratified the nation’s national budget in addition to the budgets for autonomous agencies. Total budgetary expenditure was set at 23.28 billion Emirati dirhams ($643 million) while total revenues were set at Dh 21.7 billion.
Allocations included Dh 8.35 million for salaries and Dh 9.4 million for other expenditures. In addition, Dh 770 million was allocated to the UAE University, Dh 551.4 million to the Higher Colleges of Technology and Dh 210 million to Zayed University.
The General Authority for Youth and Sports Welfare was allocated Dh 90.7 million, the Federal Electricity and Water Authority Dh 698.9 million, the Institute of Administrative Development Dh 13.5 million, the General Information Authority Dh 21.2 million and the Federal Environmental Agency Dh 12.4 million.
Some Dh 250 million was allocated to the National Marriage Fund, Dh 33 million was allocated to the Human Resource Development Authority and Dh 200 million to the Emirates Media Corporation.
The budget included a special allocation for Emiratization within government bodies and special allocations for human resource development in mosques and national students studying abroad. Additional resources were also allocated to cover increased costs resulting from newly created positions within the Ministries of Education, Health, Interior, Foreign Affairs, Labor and Communications.
Some Dh 853 million was allocated to investment projects and Dh 640 million to the Shaikh Zayed Housing Program. Special expenditures were also allocated to the establishment of new hospitals and new institutes for the handicapped and youth in addition to marine inspections and weather forecasting.
This is the first time that the UAE Federal Budget has been prepared in two different ways. In compliance with the traditional method, funds were allocated directly from the central government to its various institutions. However, it was also prepared using performance based criteria whereby allocations are defined in cooperation with the various institutions and based on measurable targets. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
