DUBAI: Dubai, the business and financial hub of the UAE, has approved a 57.1 billion dirham ($15.55 billion) budget for 2021, when the economy is expected to recover from a contraction this year, its ruler said on Sunday.
The statement did not give a comparison to actual spending in 2020, but was slightly higher than a revised spending figure of nearly 56.16 billion dirhams quoted in Dubai's sukuk prospectus seen by Reuters in August.
However, the size of the 2021 budget is 14 percent below the 66.4 billion dirhams the government had initially planned for 2020.
Dubai government officials were not immediately available to comment.
This year's budget had factored in economic dividends from the Expo 2020 world fair, a six-month event originally slated to begin in October but postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 budget, which was approved by Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, takes into account the exceptional economic conditions of the fiscal year 2020 and the repercussions of the pandemic on the global economy, the statement on Sheikh Mohammed's website said.
Dubai, with its diversified trade and tourism economy, was hit hard by a lockdown and suspension of flights earlier this year. The economy is expected to contract 6.2 percent in 2020 before growing 4 percent in 2021, supported by the continued recovery of economic activities, it said.
The statement said Dubai is expected to achieve public revenues of 52.314 billion dirhams, despite economic incentive measures adopted by the government to reduce some fees and freeze fee increases. That is 18.3 percent above revised 2020 revenue expectations of 44.2 billion dirhams in the sukuk prospectus.
Non-tax revenues, which come from state fees on various services, account for 59 percent of the total expected revenues, while tax revenues account for 31 percent .
This means Dubai is expected to post a deficit of 4.786 billion dirhams in 2021, lower than revised 2020 deficit estimates of 11.9 billion dirhams in the sukuk prospectus, but wider than the 2.4 billion dirhams originally budgeted for 2020.
The public revenue forecast is based on ongoing operations in the emirate and does not rely on oil revenues, which account for 4 percent of the total projected revenues for the fiscal year 2021.
Dubai ruler approves $15.5bn budget for 2021 as economic recovery seen
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Dubai ruler approves $15.5bn budget for 2021 as economic recovery seen
- The size of the 2021 budget is 14 percent below the 66.4 billion dirhams the government had initially planned for 2020
Saudi minister at Davos urges collaboration on minerals
- The reason of the tension of geopolitics is actually the criticality of the minerals
LONDON: Countries need to collaborate on mining and resources to help avoid geopolitical tensions, Saudi Arabia’s minister of industry and mineral resources told the World Economic Forum on Tuesday.
“The reason of the tension of geopolitics is actually the criticality of the minerals, the concentration in different areas of the world,” Bandar Alkhorayef told a panel discussion on the geopolitics of materials.
“The rational thing to do is to collaborate, and that’s what we are doing,” he added. “We are creating a platform of collaboration in Saudi Arabia.”
The Kingdom last week hosted the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh. Alkhorayef said the platform was launched by the government in 2022 as a contribution to the global community. “It’s very important to have a global movement, and that’s why we launched the Future Minerals Forum,” he said. “It is the most important platform of global mining leaders.”
The Kingdom has made mining one of the key pillars of its economy, rapidly expanding the sector under the Vision 2030 reform program with an eye on diversification. Saudi Arabia has an estimated $2.5 trillion in mineral wealth and the ramping up of extraction comes at a time of intense global competition for resources to drive technological development in areas like AI and renewables.
“We realized that unlocking the value that we have in our natural resources, of the different minerals that we have, will definitely help our economy to grow to diversify,” Alkhorayef said. The Kingdom has worked to reduce the timelines required to set up mines while also protecting local communities, he added. Obtaining mining permits in Saudi Arabia has been reduced to just 30 to 90 days compared to the many years required in other countries, Alkhorayef said.
“We learned very, very early that permitting is a bottleneck in the system,” he added. “We all know, and we have to be very, very frank about this, that mining doesn’t have a good reputation globally.
“We are trying to change this and cutting down the licensing process doesn’t only solve it. You need also to show the communities the impact of the mining on their lives.”
Saudi Arabia’s new mining investment laws have placed great emphasis on the development of society and local communities, along with protecting the environment and incorporating new technologies, Alkhorayef said. “We want to build the future mines; we don’t want to build old mines.”
