His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai issued a law regulating the partnership between the public and private sector. Law No. 22 of 2015 aims to encourage the private sector to participate in development projects and boost their investments in these projects to serve economic and social development in Dubai. It also aims to empower the government in effectively implementing strategic projects and to benefit from the management, financial, technological and organizational expertise enjoyed by the private sector, which will allow the community to access the best standard of services at a lower cost.
The law specifies terms for partnerships forged between the public and private sector as per a partnership agreement that follows the bylaws of this law. The project has to be economically, financially, technologically and socially feasible. The law forbids the signing of a partnership agreement that levies payments on a government body if the payments are not earmarked in the budget of the body’s financial allocations.
The law also stipulates conditions for the approval of projects. A government body’s director general or their deputy can approve a project as long as the total cost that will be incurred by the body through the partnership agreement does not exceed Dh200 million. The Department of Finance will be responsible for approving projects that have a total cost above Dh200 million and up to Dh500 million. Projects valued at more than Dh500 million will be approved by the Supreme Financial Policy Committee.
