Sharjah to launch UAE's first reverse vending machines

Beginning of the oil eraAt the beginning of the 1960s, the first oil company teams carried out preliminary surveys and the first cargo of crude was exported from Abu Dhabi in 1962. As oil earnings increased, ruler of Abu Dhabi, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, undertook a massive construction program, building schools, housing, hospitals and roads. When Dubai's oil exports commenced in 1969, Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the de facto ruler of Dubai, was as well able to use oil earnings to improve the quality of life of his people.

Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and the unionIn the early 1960s, oil was discovered in Abu Dhabi, an event that led to quick unification calls made by UAE sheikdoms. Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan became ruler of Abu Dhabi in 1966 and the British started losing their oil investments and contracts to U.S. oil companies. The British had before started a development office that helped in some small developments in the emirates. The sheikhs of the emirates at that time decided to form a council to coordinate matters between them and took over the development office. They formed the Trucial States Council, and appointed Adi Bitar, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum's legal advisor, as Secretary General and Legal Advisor to the Council. The council was terminated once the United Arab Emirates was formed.

GovernmentThe politics of the United Arab Emirates take place in a framework of a federal, presidential, elective monarchy. The UAE is a federation of seven absolute monarchies: the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, Ras al-Khaimah and Umm al-Qaiwain. The President of the United Arab Emirates is its head of state, and the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates is its head of government, including foreign affairs, security and defense, nationality and immigration issues, education, public health, currency, postal, telephone and other communications services, air traffic control, licensing of aircraft, labor relations, banking, delimitation of territorial waters and extradition of criminals. All responsibilities not granted to the national government are reserved to the emirates.

Although elected by the Supreme Council, the president and prime minister are in substance hereditary. The emir of Abu Dhabi holds the presidency, and the emir of Dubai is prime minister. All however one prime minister served concurrently as vice president. The political influences and financial obligations of the emirates are reflected by their respective positions in the federal government. During each emirate nevertheless retains autonomy over its own territory, a percentage of its revenue is allocated to the UAE's central budget.

The United Arab Emirates eGovernment is the extension of the UAE Federal Government in its electronic form. The UAE eGovernment enables convenient access to government information and services through innovative and customer-friendly delivery channels and streamlines the processes for quality and timely government service delivery. The UAE eGovernment engages modern tools in Information and Communication Innovation to actively connect with its wide base of users from within the UAE and beyond. The setting up of the UAE eGovernment is a major step towards modernisation and upgradation of government functioning as it brings about a cost-effective, eco-friendly, transparent and participative government.

Human rights and social developmentHuman rights are legally protected by the Constitution of the United Arab Emirates, which confers equality, liberty, rule of law, presumption of innocence in legal procedures, inviolability of the home, freedom of movement, freedom of opinion and speech, freedom of communication, freedom of religion, freedom of council and association, freedom of occupation, freedom to be elected to office and others onto all citizens, within the limit of the law.

Draft national law for better protection of children

Efforts are in accordance with way to promulgate a draft national law for better protection of children, in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The proposed law provides for the establishment of a hotline to respond to children's problems and encourages the establishment of associations or clubs specializing in child affairs, as then as calling for the appointment of a special judge to handle cases related to children.

Following the 1990 Iraq invasion of Kuwait, the UAE has maintained extensive relations with its allies for security and cooperation towards increasing interoperability of its defense forces and for liberating Kuwait. France and the USA have played the most strategically significant roles with defense cooperation agreements and military material provision. Most recently, these relations culminated in a joint nuclear deal for the US to supply the UAE with nuclear power equipment, research and fuel. In turn, the UAE - a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory - has agreed to open its nuclear facilities to full international inspections and refrain from producing its own reactor fuel.

Omani exclave surrounded

There is an Omani exclave surrounded by UAE territory, known as Wadi Madha. It is located halfway between the Musandam peninsula and the rest of Oman in the Emirate of Sharjah. It covers roughly 75 square kilometres and the boundary was settled in 1589. The north-east corner of Madha is closest to the Khor Fakkan-Fujairah road, barely 10 metres away. Within the Omani exclave of Madha, is a UAE exclave called Nahwa, as well belonging to the Emirate of Sharjah. It is about 8 kilometres on a dirt track west of the town of New Madha. It consists of about forty houses with its own clinic and telephone exchange.

In fall 2009, the Masdar Institute of Science and Research opened its doors to its first class of graduate students. The Dubai School of Government, a technology and teaching institution focusing on good governance and public policy in the Middle East, launched its first masters program as well in 2009. A number of foreign universities, from the Paris Sorbonne to Michigan State University, have opened campuses in the UAE. In February 2008, a branch of the New York Film Academy opened in Abu Dhabi; it launched its first bachelor's degree program in 2010. In fall 2010 the opening of the Abu Dhabi campus of New York University marked a new milestone. INSEAD, one of the world's largest graduate business schools, has been operating a Middle East campus in Abu Dhabi since 2007, and now runs seven executive-education programs.

The UAE has shown a strong interest in improving education and technology. Enterprises include the establishment of the CERT Innovation Centers and the Masdar Institute of Science and Research and institute for enterprise development.

The time of independence

At the time of independence, the UAE was already regarded as a rich country with GDP per capita exceeding 2,000. In 2011, UAE is ranked as the 14th best nation in the world for doing business based on its economy and regulatory environment, ranked by the Doing Business 2011 Report published by the World Bank Group

Except in the free trade zones, the UAE requires until further notice 51% local citizen ownership in all businesses operating in the country as part of its attempt to place Emiratis into leadership positions. But, this law is in accordance with review and the majority ownership clause will very likely be scrapped in order to bring the country into line with World Trade Organisation regulations.

Member of the Gulf Cooperation Council

As a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the UAE participates in the wide range of GCC activities that focus on economic issues. These include regular consultations and development of common policies covering trade, investment, banking and finance, transportation, telecommunications, and other technical areas, including protection of intellectual property rights.

Governments in the northern emirates are rapidly following suit, providing major incentives for developers of residential and commercial property. Should the contingency arise, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has allocated Dh16 billion for infrastructure projects in the northern emirates. The allocation will be used to fund the construction of road networks, new housing communities, drainage networks and other projects, providing integrated solutions to some infrastructure deficits in these areas.

The United Arab Emirates has an extensive road network that connects all major cities and towns. Roads in the western and southern regions are on the whole relatively undeveloped. Those are highly dangerous roads passing through desert regions and many are nevertheless unsealed, gravel roads. This has resulted in the continued use of airplanes as the main or alternative mode of transportation for the residents.

The Dh15.5 billion Dubai Metro project includes a 52-kilometre Red Line viaduct, which stretches the length of Sheikh Zayed Road between Al Rashidiya and Jebel Ali and was opened in September 2009 afterwards round-the-clock work for three years. The Red Line when fully complete will carry an estimated 27,000 passengers per hour in each direction on 42 trains. Work as well on the Green Line, which will link Al Qusais to Dubai Healthcare City, began in 2006 and is scheduled for completion in late 2010.In Abu Dhabi plans are underway for all a metro system and as well a country-wide national railway, which will connect all the major cities and is later to connect to the GCC wide network. The cost for the railway will be between Dh25bn and Dh30bn, and will be a total length of 1,100 kilometres, connecting Ghuwaifat, bordering the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in the west and the border with the Sultanate of Oman in the east.

The UAE is presently serviced

The UAE is presently serviced by two telecommunications operators, Etisalat and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company. Etisalat operated a monopoly until du launched mobile services in February 2007. Nevertheless, Etisalat, with over 80 per cent of the market, remains the UAE's biggest telecom provider and is expanding dramatically internationally and is now the sixteenth largest telecommunications firm inthe world. Du is targeting a 30 per cent market share by 2010. Between 2002 and 2007, the number of mobile phone subscribers in the UAE grew by an annual average of 25.6 per cent, nearly fourtimes its population growth. In 2007, there were 7.7 million subscribers. Forecasts indicate that the UAE mobile market will increase to 11.9 million users by 2012.