Ras al-Khaimah

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Ras al-Khaimah
إمارة رأس الخيمة
—  emirate  —
Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah

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Ras al-Khaimah is located in the United Arab Emirates
Ras al-Khaimah
Location of Ras al-Khaimah in the UAE
Coordinates: 25°47′N 55°57′E / 25.783°N 55.95°E / 25.783; 55.95
Government
 - Type Absolute monarchy[citation needed]
 - Emir Saqr bin Muhammad al-Qasimi
 - Crown Prince Saud bin Saqr al Qasimi
Area
 - Total 1,683 km2 (650 sq mi)
Population (2008)
 - Total 263,217

Ras al-Khaimah (Arabic: رأس الخيمة‎, rās al-Khaymah, literally "The Top of the Tent"), formerly known as Julfar, is one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in the southwest of the Persian Gulf. It is in the northern part of the UAE bordering Oman. The emirate has a population of about 300,000 inhabitants. It covers an area of 656 square miles (1700 km²), mostly desert. The emirate is ruled by Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad al-Qassimi.

The capital city and home of most residents is also called Ras al-Khaimah. The city has a population of 263,217 as of 2008.[1] The city has two main sections, Old Ras Al Khaimah and Nakheel, on either side of a creek. It is served by the Ras Al Khaimah International Airport in Al Jazirah Al Hamra.

Contents

[edit] History

The city was historically known as Julfar. Sources say that Julfar was inhabited by the Azd (They were a branch of the Kahlan tribe, which was one of the two branches of Qahtan (the aboriginal Arabs), the other being Himyar.) during the eighth and ninth centuries AD, and that the houses of the Azd were built of wood.

In the early 18th century the Qawasim clan established itself in Ras al-Khaimah.

In the early 19th century a British naval force attacked and occupied Ras al Khaimah to put a stop to the powerful hold of the maritime powerful Quwasem tribe. The Quwasem served as a threat to the British imperialism, and endagered the ships in the Indian Ocean.

After British occupation (18 December 1819 - July 1821), Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr al-Qasimi signed in 1822 the General Maritime Treaty with Britain, accepting a protectorate to keep the Ottoman Turks out. Like Ajman, Dubai, Umm al-Qaiwain and Sharjah, its position on the route to India made it important enough to be recognized as a salute state.

In 1869 Ras al-Khaimah became fully independent from Sharjah. However from September 1900 to 7 July 1921 it was re-incorporated into Sharjah, its neighbour; the last governor became its next independent ruler.

On 11 February 1972, Sheikh Saqr bin Muhammad al-Qasimi joined the United Arab Emirates.

Its rulers were:

[edit] Population

Exact population figures are difficult to come by, but a government census in 2005 calculated that the total population of the UAE was 4.3m. Many[who?] suspect that the actual figure is closer to 5m due to the large numbers of expatriate workers residing in the UAE, some of which may have been unaccounted for in the census. RAK is estimated to have a total population of 300,000. While UAE citizens officially make up less than 20% of the population in the UAE, this figure is higher in RAK. Emiratis are thought to make up at least 50% of the emirate’s population. The official language of the UAE is Arabic, although English is widely used in business circles. A significant portion of the expatriate population also speaks Malayalam, Urdu, Bengali, Persian and other languages of the subcontinent.

[edit] Economy

As emirate of RAK will never be a major oil producer, RAK has instead had to concentrate on developing its industrial sector. It opened the UAE's first cement company in the early 1970s and is now the UAE's largest producer of cement. In the 1980s, the emirate formed RAK Ceramics, which has become the world's largest ceramics producer, and Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries - Julphar, the Persian Gulf region's first pharmaceuticals company. It is trying to emerge as an investment destination par excellence.However it suffers great electricity shortage.This energy shortage has caused so many residential buildings and villas to be abandoned for years, waiting for the electricity to be connected.

The annual Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon, first held in 2007, has called the attention of the world's sporting media to the region. The organisers invest much in the IAAF-label race in order to attract the world's top athletes, resulting in a world record from Samuel Wanjiru in 2007 and the second fastest run of all-time from Patrick Makau Musyoki in 2009.[2]

[edit] Education

Schools: A large number of Government-run schools—primary, elementary and higher secondary—are scattered all over Ras Al Khaimah with Arabic as their main medium of instruction. Among other Arabic-medium schools are those that are run by private managements, viz.:

Apart from the above schools, there are English-medium ones which offer varied curricula to suit the expatriate community, offering syllabi such as GCSE, IGCSE, A Levels, O Levels, CBSE, Kerala State-Board (Indian Syllabi), Pakistani, Dhaka Board(Bangladeshi Syllabi) etc. viz.

The ISRAK, IPHS and SIS provide the CBSE curriculum in education upto the XII Standard. Science and Commerce Streams are available in these schools

University Education: Many locally-established universities and foreign universities have set up base in Ras Al Khaimah, some of which include:

Bharati Vidyapeeth University, The latest university which will be opened in RAK Free Trade Zone in February 2009. The officials of this new branch hope to attract 60 students for its bachelor of business administration course and 60 for its master of business administration degree.[7]

[edit] Transportation

Within Ras Al Khaimah: Metered taxis are the main mode of transport within Ras Al Khaimah. Public buses also operate only on long-haul routes and they cater mainly to people residing in far-flung towns, viz. Sha`am, Rams, Jazeerah-al-Hamra etc. The first local bus service in Ras Al Khaimah will be launched by June 15, 2010 to ease transport woes of low-income earners. The first will be between the Jumbo intersection in Al Nakheel and Sha’am village. It will have eight stops and buses will take 80 minutes to cover the distance. The second route will start from Al Nakheel and go via the airport road, Digdag and Khatt and turn south to Al Tawain and Adhen on the Fujairah-RAK border. According to the official, the third route going to the industrial areas — from the city to Jazeera Al Hamra and RAK Industrial Area park and the Al Ghail Industrial Area — would be opened in July, 2010. There would be a flat rate of Dh5 initially.

Emirate-to-Emirate: Ras Al Khaimah is connected to emirates like Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain and Fujairah by taxis which often embark from the taxi-stand located south of Al Dhaid town near the new RAK Police Headquarters. The fare per head is AED 20. Engaged taxis are available on request for Dhs 100 to 150 to Dubai and Dhs 200 to 250 to Abu Dhabi.

Cars are available for rent from various Rent-A-Cars at negotiable prices starting at Dhs 80.

Highways: Three free-flowing dual-carriageways link Ras Al Khaimah with the other emirates and beyond. One follows the coast with beaches on one side and stretches of desert on the other; the other, new route runs out towards the airport in the direction of Khatt, Masafi, Fujairah and Dhaid and further onto Oman.

The newly constructed 'Emirates Road (E311 Highway)' traverses the emirates of Umm Al Quwain, Ajman (60 km) and Sharjah (71 km) to finally end up in Dubai (87 km). The new highway allows journeys from Ras Al Khaimah to Dubai in under 45 minutes.

Ras Al Khaimah Sea Port

Seaport: Saqr Port, located in the industrial area of Khor Khuwair, is the Emirate's main port, providing bulk and container services. It has eight deep water berths, each 200 m long, is dredged to 12.2 m and has two ro-ro ramps plus specialised berths for handling bulk cement and aggregate. Other services include ship handling, crew changes and 40,000 m2 of covered storage together with a vast open storage area. It is also the closest port in the UAE to Bandar Abbas in Iran,however there is no shipping from saqar port to Bandar Abbas.

Airport: The Ras Al Khaimah International Airport is currently undergoing an upgrade. It operates cargo and passenger services to a variety of destinations covering the Middle East, North & East Africa, Central Asia, India and the Far East. In total 27 airlines including RAK Airways, Gulf Air, Egypt Air, Indian Airlines, Aeroflot, Pakistan International Airlines and many other airlines operate scheduled and non-scheduled flights. Open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, the airport has an open skies policy with no restrictions on frequencies and time of arrival / departure; offers competitive tariffs and storage facilities; is not congested, and has a full offering of duty-free goods, among other services.

Spaceport: On February 17, 2006, Space Adventures announced its plans to develop a $265 m commercial spaceport in Ras Al-Khaimah (Ras Al Khaimah spaceport) for purposes of space tourism.[8]

[edit] Facts

         Climate
         o Maximum Temperature: 47 degrees
         o Minimum Temperature: 5 degrees
         o Maximum relative humidity: 100
         o Minimum relative humidity: 10
         o Annual Rainfall: 19 mm
 
         Population / Vital Statistics
         o Population: 231,000
         o Male: 144,000
         o Female: 87,000
         o Rural Population: 109,000
         o Urban Population: 122,000
         o Live Births: 3214
         o Deaths: 453

         Labor Force
         o % of Population: 65.1
         o Females as % of total labor force: 34.15
         o Males as % of total labor force: 65.69
         o Unemployment Rate: 6.7%
         o Government Employees: 772
         o Govt Employees - Citizens / Non-Citizens: 264 / 264
   
         Electricity and Water
         o Energy Generated: 2747.504 M.KWH
         o Energy Distributed: 2704.706 M.KWH
         o Water produced: 9181.53 million gallons
         o Water consumed: 9181.53 million gallons
   
         Business Climate
         o GDP (2008): 12,929,000,000 (3.52 Billion USD)
         o GDP per capita: 55,969 (15,240 USD)
         o GDP growth (2007 - 2008): 8%
         o Number of Foreign Registered Companies: over 10,000
         o Total foreign investment since 2000: over 10B AED
         o Industrial Firms: 143
         o Industrial Investment per year: 4.9B AED
   
         Tax Provisions for Foreign Nationals / Companies
         o Income Tax: 0%
         o Property Tax: 0%
         o Import / Export Tax: 0%
   
         Sea Transport
         o Ship movements: 3002
         o Unloaded Tons: 8,315,000
         o Loaded Tons: 22,267,000
   
         Air Transport
         o Arrivals: 112,456
         o Departures: 95757
         o Cargo in: 6354 tons
         o Cargo out: 370 tons
  
         Foreign Trade (million dirhams)
         o Imports: 4204.58
         o Exports: 9694.44
         o Re-exports: 3525.81
         o Total Exports: 11093.83
         o Trade Balance: 9015.68
         NOTE: 1 Dirham = 3.6725 USD (pegged)

[9]

[edit] Shopping Malls

The following are some of the major shopping centres in Ras Al Khaimah

[edit] Park

Saqr Park is one of the favorite destinations in Ras Al Khaimah. This park is situated in the Air Port Road. This park is clean, green and well maintained. The park sports a large crowd on national holidays (Eid) and winter months.

[edit] Taxation and companies law

New legislation and regulations adopted by Ras al-Khaimah authorities favour big international interest for offshore business purposes. The combination of security and confidentiality is ensured to entrepreneurs. An International Business Company may only have foreign customers and is not liable for paying local taxes. It can open a local bank account, make investments tax-free, obtain mortgages for investing in UAE assets. Employment visas are available. When approved, this type of company can own property in UAE free trade zones. An International Business Company may be of a 100% foreign ownership.

No income, sales or wealth taxes are payable by individuals. No corporate taxes are charged. In addition, there are no exchange controls, no withholding nor import or export taxes.

[edit] Healthcare in Ras Al Khaimah

Ras Al Khaimah has 2 government hospitals namely Saqr Hospital and Saif Bin Ghobash Hospital. The new "RAK Hospital", a multispecialty hospital, is the only private hospital in Ras Al Khaimah. It is promoted by Arabian Healthcare LLC,a joint venture between the Government of Ras Al Khaimah and the Dubai based ETA Star Group. RAK Hospital is managed by "Sonnenhof-Swisshealth", a major healtcare provider in Switzerland. RAK Hospital opened in November 2007 with the departments Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Surgery, Orthopedics, General Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Dentistry, Ear-Nose and Throat, Ophthalmology, Urology, Dermatology and Radiology (64-Slice CT Scanner, open MRI). The Emergency Department is open 24 hours, 7 days a week. A state-of-the-art Intensive Care unit with 8 beds is fully operational. In 2009 the Department for Minimal Invasive Surgery and a Cardiac Catheter Lab. have been added. RAK Hospital has been accredited by "Joint Commission International" (JCI) and "Swiss Leading Hospitals".

[edit] Settlements

Main page: :Category:Cities, towns and villages in Ras al-Khaimah

[edit] Tribes

[edit] Dunes

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ United Arab Emirates
  2. ^ Fairlie, Greg (2010-02-10). Fast times in store as a field of 10 sub-60 men announced for RAK Half Marathon. IAAF. Retrieved on 2010-02-11.
  3. ^ http://rakcods.com
  4. ^ The Ras Al Khaimah campus (GMU-RAK) http://rak.gmu.edu
  5. ^ Birla Institute of Technology International Center (BITIC)
  6. ^ http://actualites.epfl.ch/presseinfo-com?id=700
  7. ^ Indian university to open branch campus in RAK
  8. ^ Space Adventures Announces $265 Million Global Spaceport Development Project
  9. ^ [http://http://www.rakinfo.ae/facts.php

[edit] External links

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