Dubai Municipality is expected to allocate Dh5 billion ($1.36 billion) as the budget for infrastructure projects in the UAE emirate over the next five years.

The expenditure on these projects will range from Dh900 million to Dh1 billion a year until the end of 2005, said a report published in the first issue of Business in Dubai, a monthly magazine being published by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).

The emirate's population is projected to reach the two million mark by 2005 while the workforce is expected to register a 9.5 per cent growth.

It said that Dubai will not face any problems in financing the projects during the next five years, especially when the government budget will account for the financing of the projects besides the support lent by the private sector.

Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and Industry and Chairman of Dubai Municipality, has said that the infrastructure projects planned by the municipality in 2001 would cost nearly Dh2 billion. The municipality, he said, has been able to fund up to 70 per cent of the finances for the infrastructure projects from its own revenues, while the rest was being borne by the government.

Qassim Sultan, director-general of Dubai Municipality, had earlier said that the civic body's three-phase long-term strategic development plan for Dubai stretches from 2001 to 2015. In the first phase, 11,000 ha of land will be developed from 2001 to 2005. The second phase, from 2006 to 2010, will see the development of 16,400 ha of land, while the third phase, from 2011 to 2015, will see the development of 14,700 ha of land.