News

The Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) met with business and government leaders from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq earlier this month in Erbil, the region’s capital city. The authority’s visit came as part of an 150-strong delegation to Erbil representing 54 UAE government departments and major private sector businesses in conjunction with the second ‘TradeUAE Iraq’ exhibition. Iraq is ...

Construction of Sharjah International Airport’s AED 500 million (USD 136 million) new airstrip is well underway and is work is expected to be completed over the summer months. The airport is one of the Middle East’s top airfreight logistics hubs and the home base of regional budget airline Air Arabia. Sharjah International Airport’s year-on-year growth is strong and it saw ...

The Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) is promoting Sharjah’s investment proposition to Iraqi Kurdistan and Russia this month. The Russian Federation is a major trading partner of the United Arab Emirates with bilateral trade in excess of US$1.5 billion (AED 5.5 billion), while non-oil trade between the UAE and Iraq reached a total of US$8 billion (Dh29.42 billion) in ...

Moody’s Investors Services has published its first report on Sharjah, awarding the emirate with a A3 stable rating. The rating, which reflects the emirate’s credit strength, is primarily supported by its very strong fiscal and government debt position, noting that government debt is at low levels. A few months ago, global credit rating agency S&P announced its first ever sovereign ...

The Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) took its investment promotion roadshow to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait this month, in line with it’s goal to strengthen economic relations between Sharjah and neighbouring GCC countries. “We seek, through our roadshow, to highlight the investment potential in Sharjah and to familiarise business groups and economic authorities with the available investment ...

Strong growth in the UAE economy and rising rents in neighbouring Dubai have boosted demand for residential and commercial property in Sharjah, according to a report by international real estate consultancy Cluttons. The report stated that average residential rental costs climbed by 4.5 per cent during the first quarter, leaving them 19 per cent higher than this time last year, ...

Bee’ah, Sharjah’s award-winning fully integrated environment and waste management company, has awarded a GBP300 million (AED1.8 billion) contract to UK firm Chinook Sciences to build the world’s largest advanced thermal energy-from-waste facility. “There are many technologies and many companies which have used incineration for years,” said Bee’ah’s CEO Khaled Al Huraimel. “Sharjah wants to be a leader in the environmental ...

Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) has embarked on a roadshow of major European cities to promote the Emirate of Sharjah as a tourist destination. The first part of the European road show includes Austria, Germany and Switzerland and runs from 19-23 May 2014, with further country visits to be announced. More than 250,000 European tourists visited the Emirate ...

Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) announced this week that it has joined NASDAQ Dubai’s new Islamic financing platform, Murabaha, which offers an alternative for Islamic financing transactions using Sharia-compliant Certificates. SIB is the first bank to join the Murabaha platform, which was set-up by NASDAQ Dubai in partnership with Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) and Emirates Islamic Financial Brokerage (EIFB). Originally founded ...

Sharjah could award up to AED 11 billion (US$3 billion) of construction projects by the end of 2014, according to a new report by Meed Projects. The report, which takes into account all known construction and transport projects in Sharjah with an estimated value of over AED18.3 million (US$5 million), predicted a bumper year for construction in the Emirate. According ...