‘More budget funding for education will lead to more innovation’

▶ Education and community at forefront of UAE Cabinet’s economic plans

Allocating a lion’s share of the UAE’s federal budget to education and community development shows that the country is investing in its future, government officials have said.

Federal National Council member Salem Al Shehhi, said yesterday that devoting most of the funds towards education would benefit Emiratis and allow them to excel.

“The excellence of a nation is based on the quality of education,” said Mr Al Shehhi, who represents Ras Al Khaimah in the council. “We need extra effort in that area for more innovation in the future.”

This week, the UAE Cabinet approved the largest federal budget in the country’s history, with more than half set aside for education and social development.

Of the Dh60.3 billion budget for 2019, the government will spend Dh25.5bn on social benefit programmes, Dh10.3bn towards university education programmes, and Dh 9.8bn on infrastructure and economic resources.

More funds have also been allotted for housing projects for Emiratis. Among the changes include an increase in the cap for Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme allowances – which provides Emiratis with housing or land in which to build their homes – from Dh500,000 to Dh800,000.

Mr Al Shehhi said the programme benefitted countless citizens, which is the ultimate goal expressed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, on Sunday.

“The citizen is our top priority and we allocated the bulk of the budget to ensure the citizen’s prosperity, health, education and security,” Sheikh Mohammed said after chairing the Cabinet meeting.

Mr Al Shehhi said the budget allocations targeted key areas to improve the livelihood of Emiratis.

“Education, housing and health are all services that, when enhanced, will increase the comfort of the people, which shows that the government is carefully calculating its movements,” he said.

The improvement in some sectors as a result of increased government spending is obvious, Mr Al Shehhi said.

“There are many examples of how education has improved from increased government funding, whether it was innovative laboratory in schools or highly qualified teachers. We noticed all of this lately.”

He said many students who were awarded scholarships have benefited from increased government spending by being able to travel abroad to study.

“From China to Europe to South Korea to Japan – those are all examples of the benefits of additional government funding,” Mr Al Shehhi said.

Rabaa Amer, a 42-year-old Emirati, is one such student. The mother of four has been looking forward to doing her PhD in leadership and innovation at Plymouth in the UK since she finished her master’s degree in 2010.

“I applied for a scholarship one year ago, and just today they got back to me,” the executive director at the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation said.

“Just as I was leaving work I received a call saying my scholarship had been accepted, and there will be a committee following up my studies.”

Ms Amer praised government plans to increase education funding “because as a mother of four, it is important for me that my children benefit from that, and I hope they could all get scholarships to study abroad as well”.

Hamad Al Rahoomi, an FNC member from Dubai, said increased funding for education, health and infrastructure “will reflect positively on all locals in a direct manner”.

If evidence were needed that the government is committed to future-proofing the UAE and its citizens, it is to be found in both the sheer scale and the fine detail of the largest federal budget in the nation’s history. This week the cabinet approved spending for 2019 of Dh60.3 billion, an increase of more than 17 per cent over this year’s budget − itself a record amount. Between next year and 2021, a total of Dh180bn has been set aside. For most of us, it is difficult to comprehend the scale of such sums, but by way of comparison Dh60bn (US$16 bn) is equivalent to NASA’s entire annual budget. It is also the value of exports from the US that China is planning to hit with tariffs as part of the ongoing trade war between the two countries.

But, as impressive as the headline budget figure for next year is, it is how the money is going to be spent that shows that the nation is well on course to achieve the goals of UAE Vision 2021. The broad aim of the plan, launched in 2010, was simple and ambitious – to make the UAE one of the best countries in the world by the 50th anniversary of the union in 2021. Crucial to the realisation of that vision is the fulfilment of six national priorities – the establishment of world-class healthcare, a first-rate education system, a sustainable environment and infrastructure, a competitive knowledge economy, safety and security for all citizens and an inclusive, cohesive society that is proud of its heritage and culture.

It is no coincidence, therefore, that social development, education and healthcare are among the big winners in the 2019 budget. Security, too, is to receive “substantial” funding. In many of its aspects, the budget channels major funding directly into the key focus of Vision 2021: the creation of “a competitive economy driven by knowledgeable and innovative Emiratis”. This is the foundation stone upon which all else will be built, underpinning the determination to free the UAE from dependency on oil.

Thanks to decades of imaginative domestic and global investments in a wide range of alternative sectors, that objective is well within its grasp. By 2021, it is projected that 80 per cent of the UAE’s gross domestic product will be attributed to non-oil sectors. This is a remarkable success, all the more so for having been achieved in less than a lifetime since the black gold that transformed the emirates first began to flow. But as this historic budget makes clear, the unflinching focus now is on tomorrow. To Vision 2021 and beyond, what this nation might achieve in the next half-century promises to be astonishing.