ABU DHABI, 11 May 2004 — The United Arab Emirates has allocated more than 10 billion dirhams ($2.73 billion) of its 2004 budget to security and judicial administration, according to an official statement from the Cabinet issued yesterday.
About 42 percent of the 23.88 billion dirhams ($6.54 billion) budget, or 10.083 billion dirhams ($2.76 billion), has been earmarked for “security and justice,” said the statement. Government officials declined to say what was covered by “justice.”
The amount, the highest set for a single sector, reflects the impact of current events in the Middle East, including the war in Iraq and efforts to combat terrorism.
This is the first time that the Emirates has announced how much it was spending on security. It was not clear whether the security budget included military spending.
The Emirates has not been a target of any terror attacks, but security remains a main concern as the country is a regional hub for business and tourism.
The social services sector came second in the budget’s allocations with 9 billion dirhams ($2.479 billion), about 38 percent of the total. The government-owned Emirates Industrial Bank said in a report in January that the Gross Domestic Product showed record growth of 10.2 percent, reaching 271 billion dirhams ($73.7 billion) in 2003.
The growth was caused by a 17 percent increase in oil prices in 2002 and aggressive expansion in the real estate, commercial, and manufacturing sectors. Oil is the main source of revenue.
EIB said the non-oil sector grew by 6.4 percent, contributing 191 billion dirhams ($52 billion) to the country’s GDP, an increase of 11.5 billion dirhams from 2002. Manufacturing accounted for 36 billion dirhams ($9.8 billion), or 13.3 percent of the GDP, according to the report. Construction materials are the top goods manufactured in the Emirates.
