Dubai aims for budget surplus by 2011

Dubai's Government has started to cut spending in an effort to swing its budget to a surplus by 2011, the emirate's finance chief said in a report published yesterday.

Under the new plan Abdulrahman Al Saleh, Director-General of Dubai's Department of Finance, said he planned to trim the government's operating expenses by 15 per cent this year to reduce the budget gap, he told Al Bayan newspaper in an interview.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, approved the emirate's 2010 budget with a deficit of two per cent of gross domestic product, deeper than last year and in line with a budget committee's proposal, the government said in January.

The plan will be drafted in collaboration between the Department of Finance, financial services departments of local government bodies, and institutions included in the general budget of the emirate.

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