A national plan by the UAE’s prime minister to greatly increase wealth among its residents could see the Gulf state become one of the richest countries on the planet.
As part of the National Agenda programme launched on Tuesday, prime minister and vice president Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said that the government aimed to increase GDP per capita by 65 percent over the next seven years.
According to the World Bank, the UAE’s GDP per capita was $42,080 in 2012. If the plan is successful, this would rise to just shy of $70,000, which could make the UAE the third richest country on the planet by this measure, behind Luxembourg and Qatar.
GDP per capita is calculated by taking a country’s annual gross domestic product and dividing it by the average population for that year, before taking into account inflation and costs of living. The scale is generally used as a measure of a state’s standard of living.
At present, Luxembourg has the world’s highest GDP per capita at $91,388, World Bank data shows.
Sheikh Mohammed did not specify how this objective would be achieved, but the announcement came as part of a wider programme of reform to improve education, healthcare, housing and employment for UAE citizens.
The prime minister also said that it would increase the number of citizens employed in the private sector tenfold by 2021, and was prepared to intervene in the labour market if required. Currently, more than two-thirds of Emirati nationals are employed by the country’s substantial public sector.
The UAE, which entered a crippling debt crisis in 2009 following the collapse of its property market, has witnessed a significant recovery in its equity and real estate markets over the last year. The country was also recently awarded the right to host the 2020 World’s Fair.
According to data from the International Monetary Fund, the UAE’s economy is set to grow by 3.9 percent this year.
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