USA2UAE.COM

With just a fortnight to go, the mother of all shopping festivals — the Dubai Shopping Festival 2009 (DSF) — is coming back to town.

Scheduled to begin on January 15, the 14^th edition of the DSF is set to open at a time of global financial turmoil, but the organisers say DSF 2009 will deliver.

Dubai looks her best during the DSF when every nook and corner of the city is lit up with over a million lights and colourful decorations.

Over 3.2 million people visited DSF 2008 with the expenditure touching Dh10 billion.

The participating retail outlets of the DSF and the various shopping malls are expecting a windfall. With the December sale already in session at the various retail outlets across the city, products are being sold at discounts of over 70 per cent.

Though they have not yet announced the promotional offers for the season, retail outlets have pledged their entire support to the DSFO (Dubai Shopping Festival Office) by lining up attractive discounts and raffle draws to lure the crowds into the shopping malls and retail outlets.

Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman of Dubai Shopping Festival Office (DSFO) Supreme Committee said the UAE economy is robust enough to ride out the current difficulties and continue to achieve good economic growth rates.

“There is a tireless endeavour to tackle the economic turmoil and hold events that can contribute to reviving several economic sectors, primarily retail trade and tourism,” he said.

“This year’s edition of DSF comes at a time when the entire world is experiencing an acute period of economic crisis with a number of leading world economies having drifted into economic recession.”

He stressed on the importance of strong partnership between the private and public sectors…SOURCE

The Government of Dubai plans to boost public spending by 20 per cent next year to stimulate the economy and keep pace with its infrastructure development targets, Nasser Al Shaikh, Director-General of Dubai’s Department of Finance, told Khaleej Times in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

To better-position itself to face challenges posed by the global economic crisis and its impact on the domestic economy, government also plans to merge and consolidate operations of some of its departments and agencies, he said.

Al Shaikh said that the increase in 2009 public expenditure, over the budgeted public spending of Dh30 billion in 2008, would be to mostly meet the cost of construction of the Metro (the first section of the $14.3 billion mass transit project is expected to open by September 2009), the new Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, bridges, roads and another infrastructure projects…SOURCE