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UAE to undertake broad gov't restructuring following oil slump

Xinhua, February 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum announced here Monday the biggest government restructuring in the country's 44-year old history.

Addressing over 3,000 delegates from the UAE and over 125 countries at the fourth annual world government summit, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid said UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan has approved to reduce the number of ministries and "to outsource most of the government services to the private sector."

The UAE, a major oil supplier, will merge the ministries of education and of higher education under one ministry. Oil prices currently trade at around 30 dollars per barrel, down from 110 in mid-2014, which led to an estimated fiscal deficit of 2.3 percent, in 2015, the first since the global financial crisis in 2009, according to the IMF. For 2016, the fund expects the UAE fiscal deficit to widen to over seven percent.

He also said an independent institution which will manage public hospitals in the country, while a new Ministry of State for Happiness to improve people's lives will be formed, adding that a number of ministries will be renamed.

Sheikh Mohammed said the change of government shall give the political leadership a new mission to serve the needs of the young generation in particular.

Over 60 percent of local Emirati population are younger than 30 years. The UAE has approximately 9.5 million inhabitants of which 80 percent are foreigners. Endit