Rural Development in Sharjah

HE Khalid Jassim Midfa, Chairman of Sharjah Commerce and Tourism Development Authority (SCTDA) in his statement he stated that “Agility of response, how dynamic are we, in the tourism sector whether it is government or private sector or academic partner or how quick are we in responding is really what matters and what will make a difference. We see different countries around the world are taking different directions depending on their situations and how they prepare, each country is different. Diversification is another key factor and element in facing such challenges now talking about United Arab Emirates I think it was proven that the preparedness here was at a very high level and the government has given a lot of benefits and support to the tourism sector across the UAE at different levels. We depend 10-12 % GDP on tourism at the same time diversified as tourism sector we are able to survive. We took a lot of measures to make sure that we were able to survive during these challenging times. We need some positive measures instead of talking about challenges, they will be there all the time.” He further reiterated that infrastructure play a key role and can see the rural areas been developed especially the central region and east coast in Sharjah like Kalba and Khorfakkan. Earlier it used to take about 2 hours to drive to the destinations but now we can do so in about an hour to Khorfakkan. He further reiterated that rural areas have SMEs that will develop and this guarantees more due to the infrastructure that has played a key role.”