Dubai Is Not Worried: Sheikh Ahmed

Dubai sees no need to recapitalise the financial support fund which provides aid to indebted state-linked companies, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, the head of the emirate’s Supreme Fiscal Committee, said on Monday.

“No, we do not need to do anything like that. All the companies are doing well,” Sheikh Ahmed told reporters in response to a question.

Sheikh Ahmed did not specify how much money was left in the Dubai Financial Support Fund, saying he did not remember the exact figure.

The fund’s expenditure was estimated at Dhs19.2 billion ($5.2 billion) in 2011, after 14.7 billion in 2010 and 48.9 billion in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Asked about the debt problems of Dubai’s state-linked firms, which flared into a crisis in 2009, Sheikh Ahmed said: “Dubai is not worried. I believe we proved to the market that we overcame the problem we had as anybody else, as the rest of the world.

“Also we have seen over the last couple of years that the market is really improving, there’s growth in every business, especially in the tourism sector, aviation sector, business and insurance. Everyone says the city is lively.”

The head of Dubai’s Department of Economic Development, Sami al-Qamzi, said at an economic conference on Monday that Dubai’s gross domestic product was expected to rise by more than four per cent in 2013.