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UAE tops Arab World in construction work
posted on 24/12/2009
 An upsurge in public and private investments boosted the UAE's building activity by more than 20 per cent in 2008 and allowed it to have the largest construction sector in the Arab World, official figures showed.
Saudi Arabia, the world's oil superpower with the largest Arab economy, had dominated construction activity in the region in the previous years before it was outpaced by the UAE in 2008, showed the 2009 Arab economic report, released by the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) yesterday.
From US$15.87 billion (Dh58.2bn) in 2007, the UAE construction sector's contribution to the gross domestic product jumped to nearly US$19bn in 2008, an increase of 20.1 per cent, showed the report, which was prepared by the AMF and other key Arab League establishments, including the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development.
The UAE construction sector accounted for around a fifth of the total Arab construction sector's value of US$94.1bn last year. Saudi Arabia had the second largest construction sector last year, with a value of US$18.9bn, followed by Algeria with nearly US$12.5bn and Egypt with US$6.6bn.
Construction activity in the UAE and other Gulf oil producers climbed to one of its highest levels through most of 2008 before it was slashed by the eruption of the global financial distress in mid-September.
In real terms, the UAE construction sector swelled by around 6.7 per cent in 2008 to record the second highest growth rate in the country's non-oil sector.
Figures by the Ministry of Economy showed the real construction sector climbed to a record high of Dh40.1bn in 2008 from around Dh37.5bn in 2007.
In a recent report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated the total value of projects planned in the UAE at a staggering US$918bn in construction, oil and gas, petrochemicals, real estate, industry and other sectors.
The value accounts for nearly 42 per cent of the total major ventures to be implemented by the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) in the medium term as part of a strategy to diversify their oil-reliant economy and upgrade their infrastructure, the Washington-based IMF said.
The focus of the projects in the UAE is the real estate sector as the country is striving to tackle a festering housing supply bottlenecks that has been cited as one of the main reasons for soaring inflation.
But other sectors are also getting massive investments, mainly petrochemicals and industry, as the UAE is also trying to diversify its sources of income.
The investments in the UAE include nearly US$607.4bn for real estate while US$137.5bn would be pumped into infrastructure projects, and US$72bn into oil and gas as the country is pushing ahead with a major programme to expand its hydrocarbon output capacity to meet demand.
The other projects cover US$66bn for electricity and water, US$20bn for non-oil industry and US$13.6bn for petrochemicals. – Emirates Business 24|7
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