Ras Al Khaimah, UAE, September 10, 2017:  Ras Al Khaimah Chamber announced that the growth rate in the transportation sector in the Emirate reached 30.3% during the years 2011-2015, according to a study published by the Chamber based on statistics published by the Ras Al Khaimah Center for Statistics and Studies. 

Growth in the productivity of the transportation sector 
Dr. Ahmed Rashed Al Shemaili, Assistant Director-General of Commercial Service and Business Development Sector at Ras Al Khaimah Chamber, said: “The transportation sector is one of the essential supporting sectors in any economic entity aiming towards global markets. The performance of this sector is considered an indicator of the extent development in other production sectors and its ability to succeed in global commerce, as well as the ability of products in these sectors to compete on a regional and global level, and therefore a measure of the local economy’s competitiveness in general.” 

Al Shemaili added: “The transportation sector grew at a rate of 30.3% from 2011-2015, a rate higher than the rate of increase in the GDP for the Emirate, which was 24.2% during the same period. The value of the transportation sector’s productivity increased from 1.3145 billion Dirhams in 2011 to 1.713 billion Dirhams in 2015, an increase of 398.5 million Dirhams, which accompanied sizable growth in other production sectors in the local Emirate’s economy.” 

Transportation sector’s contribution to economic growth 
Asem Bani Faris, Senior Economist Researcher at Ras Al Khaimah Chamber, when discussing the transportation sector’s contribution to economic growth, said: “The sector played a role that cannot be overlooked in the Emirate’s economic growth. It made a noteworthy contribution in the growth achieved over the past five years in spite of it not being a main productivity sector. The sector’s contribution in the increase was 7.2% by 398.5 million Dirham, a result of continuous growth averages that the sector maintained in past years.” 

Asem added: “The sector contributed approximately by 6% to the GDP in the Emirate in 2015, which is an indicator of the sector’s essential logistical development and fulfilling its role in supporting the development of other sectors. This development can be attributed to the fact that transportation sector enjoys many possibilities in the quantity and different type of transportation methods available by air, land, and sea which have accompanied economic development.” 
The study highlighted the growth indicators in this sector’s productivity based on the statistics published by the Ras Al Khaimah Center for Statistics and Studies during the last five years and the extent of its contributions in the Emirate’s GDP growth. It also displayed the most important factors in investment growth in transportation, among them the establishment of capital, the number of facilities, and workforce numbers in the sector, as well as the evolution of the price of services offered by the sector.