Sharjah has boosted budget spending to Dh17.7 billion this year in a bid to stimulate economic growth and create more jobs for Emiratis.
The 2015 budget, which was announced late on Tuesday by the state news agency Wam, will create 1,000 more jobs for Emiratis in the public sector. It comes in comparison to the emirate’s budget of Dh15.4bn for last year.
The largest single part of the spending pot has been earmarked for Sharjah’s “economic development sector”, which accounts for 45 per cent of the annual budget.
More than a third of the budget was allocated to the emirate’s infrastructure sector.
Sharjah’s economy has benefited from an influx of residents escaping higher rents in neighbouring Dubai over the past year, which has helped to spur a wave of retail and residential development throughout the emirate. Sheikh Mohammed bin Saud Al Qasimi, the chairman of the Sharjah Central Finance Department, said this year’s budget underpinned the directives of the emirate’s ruler, Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed, to stimulate growth in the emirate. The budget, he added, was planned to enhance the emirate’s financial stability while ensuring the welfare and happiness of the local community.
He added that the budget also aims to advance the emirate’s strategic approach towards the development of world-class infrastructure facilities, conservation of the environment, protection of public health and safety and expansion of the green acreage as part of its green economy strategy.
jeverington@thenational.ae
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