About United Arab Emirates

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Country Name	Conventional Long Form: United Arab Emirates Local Long Form (Arabic): Dawlat Al Imarat Al Arabiyya Al Muttahidah Local Short Form (Arabic): Al Imarat Abbreviation: UAE Arabic Words: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة
Emirates	Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah
Capital	Abu Dhabi
National Day	Independence Day (from UK), 2 December (1971)
President	HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (3 November 2004)
Vice-President & Prime Minister	HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (5 January 2006)
Political System	A federation with specific areas of authority constitutionally assigned to the UAE Federal Government and other powers reserved for member emirates
Constitution	Adopted provisionally on 2 December 1971, made permanent in 1996
Area	83,600 square kilometers
Time	UAE Standard Time is 4 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+4)
Daylight Saving Time	UAE Time does not operate Daylight-Saving Time
International Dialing Code	+971
Currency	Emirati Dirham (Dh or AED), divided into 100 Fils
Exchange Rate	US$ 1 = AED 3.6725 The UAE Dirham has been officially pegged to the US dollar since February 2002
Language	The official language is Arabic. English is widely understood and ranks alongside Arabic as the language of commerce
Religion	Islam. Practice of all religious beliefs is allowed
Population	4.106 million (December, 2005)
GDP	AED 485.5 billion (2005, Current Prices)
Real GDP Growth	8.2% (2005)
Non-Oil Sector Contribution to Nominal GDP	64% (2005)
Foreign Direct Investment	US$10 billion (2005)
Industries	Oil & Gas, Aluminum, Cement, Fertilizers, Commercial Ship Repair, Petrochemicals, Construction Materials, Pharmaceuticals, Tourism
Oil Production	2.8 million barrels per day
Oil Proven Reserves	98.1 billion barrels
Natural Gas Production	65 billion cubic meters
Natural Gas Proven Reserves	6 trillion cubic meters
Fiscal Year	1 January to 31 December
Weekend	Friday and Saturday for government institutions. Many private companies operate a six-day week (with Friday as an off day)
Exports	AED 424 billion (2005)
Free-Zone Exports	AED 63.9 billion (2005)
Re-Exports	AED 139.5 billion (2005)
Imports	AED 261.2 billion (2005)
Cultivated Areas	260,000 hectares, 3.1% of total territory
Number of Date Palms	Over 40 million
Agriculture & Fisheries Products	Dates, Green Fodder, Vegetables and Fruit; Livestock, Poultry, Eggs, Dairy Products; Fish
Estimated Fisheries Catch	97,574 tons
Flag	Three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and black with a wider vertical red band on the hoist side

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