General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Chairman of the Executive Council, has ordered an increase in the capital of the Sheikh Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development from DhD1 billion to Dh2 billion.

The Khalifa Fund will expand the scope of its services to cover all the UAE emirates.

The move is in accordance with directives by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Sheikh Mohammed said, "The directives of the leadership reflect the commitment of the leader towards Emirati youth nationwide and their creative energies. They are our sons and daughters, therefore, we have to provide them with whatever necessary to enable them to innovate and create to further develop their talents, and to contribute to the socio-economic aspirations of the UAE".

He emphasised that the Khalifa Fund, which is one of the organs of development in the UAE, has managed over the last four years to rehabilitate and train a large number of categories of UAE citizens to manage high quality and innovative projects that contribute to the national economy.

"The success of the experience has encouraged us to expand it to cover all Emiratis throughout the emirates to enable yet more benefit from it", Sheikh Mohammed said.

Earlier the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince had toured the northern emirates, where he obtained first hand information about the needs of citizens in all the sectors, and the basic infrastructure projects being implemented in accordance with the directives of the UAE President.

The Khalifa fund has begun to establish a branch in Fujairah through preparation of qualified and specialised personnel in business, and through support of Small Medium Enterprises. It will soon be ready to receive applications. The Fund is also preparing another branch in the emirate of Ajman, which will be operational by the end of the first half of this year.

Hussein Al Nowais, Chairman of the Board of the Khalifa Fund, said the services of the Fund's branches will be provided to the citizens of the emirate of Fujairah through the branch in Fujairah, while those in Ajman will receive services through the Ajman branch.

He added that the services of the fund will be gradually spread to citizens through ranches across the country.

The Khalifa Fund provides different financing solutions for the projects and proposals made by the young men and girls. The programmes include: Bedaya (Start UP) Zeyada (Additional), Sandouq Al-Estithmar Al Mubasher (Direct Investment Fund), Barnamej Al Tesnea (Manufacture) to cover such as types.

It also includes a number of initiatives, and social financing programmes such as financing stage programme (Al Khatwa), handicraft and heritage initiatives (Mubadarat Sowgha), programmes directed to inmates of the reformatory centres (Mubadarat Al Reda), programme for those who quit addiction from the National Rehabilitation Centre (Ishraq), and Hope Programme for People with special needs (Al Amal).

It is worth noting that the Khalifa Fund agreed to the finance of 60 projects at cost of Dh111million in 2010, raising the total number of projects financed by the fund since the inception in 2007 to 240 projects at total cost Dh415 million.

The Fund offers facilities to the projects it funds such as exemption from registration and licensing fees, priority in tenders of some public institutions, besides training and rehabilitation programmes in different specialisations such as marketing, management, accounting and others.