UAE commits over $1.5 bn in foreign aid

Abu Dhabi, Oct 9 (IANS/WAM) The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has committed 5.83 billion dirhams (over $1.5 billion) in grants and loans to 137 countries and regions around the world, the UAE's ministry of development and international cooperation has said.

The UAE, ranked last year as the world's 16th most generous donor by OECD, also allocated 5.59 billion dirhams towards future projects, according to the UAE Foreign Aid 2012 report released by the ministry Tuesday.

Nearly 78 per cent of these funds will be for official development assistance, the report says.

"The United Arab Emirates' generosity has allowed it to be ranked by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD-DAC) among the world's most generous donors in 2012," the UAE's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Presidential Affairs Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said in a message while releasing the report.

"This foreign policy represents the continued application of the values and principles established by the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder of the UAE, and it is based on the UAE's financial, moral, and practical commitment to respond to humanitarian crises and natural disasters across the world," Sheikh Mansour added.

The report says some 87 percent (5.07 billion dirhams) of the UAE's aid went to development projects, 6.9 percent (404.4 million dirhams) to humanitarian assistance and 6.1 percent (356.2 million dirhams) to charity projects.

Asia topped the list of recipients of the UAE's foreign assistance last year, receiving more than half or 3.24 billion dirhams of the total disbursements.

--IANS/WAM

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