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Public spending ties the UAE closer together

7 October 2025

 

On 6 October, Abu Dhabi Executive Council chairman Sheikh Khaled Bin Mohamed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan toured the almost-complete Zayed National Museum – the latest high-profile addition to the capital’s Saadiyat Cultural District, alongside branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums.

The museum is due to officially open its doors in December, with galleries tracing the history of human civilisation and the development of the UAE itself. Mohamed Khalifa Al-Mubarak, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture & Tourism, said the museum will “serve as a bridge for dialogue between the UAE and the world” – but the Foster & Partners-designed building, with its cluster of tapered, wing-like towers reaching into the sky, will also play a role in cementing the country’s own self-image.

Infrastructure blitz

Other projects are also helping to tie the seven emirates closer together, including the national rail system. Freight trains have been running across the network since early 2023 and the first passenger trains are due to follow next year. They will be operated by a joint venture between the state-owned Etihad Rail and France’s Keolis, in a deal announced during the Global Rail 2025 exhibition in Abu Dhabi in late September.

There are big ambitions for the new network, with some projections suggesting passenger numbers could reach more than 36 million within four years. The trains will provide a physical connection between the emirates that avoids the often clogged-up roads; officials hope it could lead to greater economic activity too. Azza Alsuwaidi, deputy chief executive of Etihad Rail Mobility, has said the project could contribute some AED145bn ($39bn) to the UAE’s GDP over the next 50 years.

From the capital it will take less than an hour to travel northeast to Dubai and around 70 minutes to go southwest to Ruwais; the journey from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman cost is expected to take 1 hour 45 minutes. When complete, the network will connect 11 cities in all. The development of a separate high-speed line will cut the journey time between Abu Dhabi and Dubai to just 30 minutes, with trains travelling at up to 350 kilometres an hour.

Freight services continue to be further developed too. There are plans, for example, to create a new ‘bonded rail corridor’ that will link Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi with Fujairah Terminals and their adjacent free zones.

In a separate effort to improve inter-emirate links, the Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure announced in late September a AED750m, two-year plan to upgrade the Emirates Road, adding extra lanes and bridges to cut the travel time for those driving between Ras Al-Khaimah, Umm Al-Quwain, Sharjah and Dubai.

Economic resilience

Earlier in the month, the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development pledged to help 1,000 local entrepreneurs in the next six months, via a national campaign called ‘The Emirates: The Startup Capital of the World’. This was launched on 21 September by federal Prime Minister and Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.

Such domestic issues provide a welcome contrast to the often-tense regional situation that policymakers and leaders are having to navigate – including the situation in Gaza and the reimposition of United Nations sanctions on Iran in late September.

In the face of such geopolitical headwinds, the UAE economy has proved very resilient. In a statement in early October, the IMF said the country’s GDP expanded by 4% last year and should accelerate to 4.8% this year, well ahead of the global average.

After leading an IMF team on a recent visit to the country, mission chief Said Bakhache said that “expansion in tourism, construction and financial services continues to underpin growth, supported by major infrastructure projects”.

The economy has also been helped by the ongoing rollout of the UAE’s free trade strategy – the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements with Australia and Malaysia were the two most recent to come into force, at the start of October.

There are, though, some clouds on the horizon, not least in the real estate sector. Bakhache noted that housing costs represented “the main source of price pressures, raising potential affordability concerns”.

The most recent UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index placed Dubai fifth in its rankings of cities around the world, rating the city as being at an “elevated risk” of a property bubble after seeing a 50% rise in prices over the past five years.

“Dubai’s bubble risk has surged since 2022 amid an economic boom, leaving the market looking increasingly overheated,” the report said, adding that “incomes are not keeping pace with home prices and affordability has deteriorated”.

Gentrification pivot

This risk aside, the authorities are nevertheless working in other ways to try to make quality of life better. For instance, on 26 September, the Dubai authorities set up a new Civility Committee, which will be responsible for improving the look and feel of the city – part of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid’s aim to make Dubai “the world’s most beautiful and advanced city”.

A few days later, on 29 September, the Abu Dhabi Executive Council took a similar step, when it approved the $11.4bn (AED42bn) next phase of its Liveability Strategy – a policy that aims to improve infrastructure in residential areas, from sports facilities and parks to schools and mosques.

The emirate’s authorities are also planning to build 40,000 homes for locals over the next five years, across Al-Ain, the Al-Dhafra region and Abu Dhabi city itself. Al-Dhafra will also feature on the Etihad Rail passenger network, making it an option for commuters priced out of the bigger cities.

Between these different public outlays, the common thread that emerges is that of the UAE’s desire to project an image of itself as a dependable, clear-visioned nation – one of connectivity, civic diligence and social mobility – in an increasingly uncertain world.

Main image: Construction of the Zayed National Museum in the Saadiyat Cultural District, Abu Dhabi

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Dominic Dudley

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