Country Profile

Accounting for just over 3% of the territory of the UAE, Sharjah is the third-largest emirate, and has long played an important cultural and economic role in the region. Home to a number of principal commercial, educational and cultural institutions, Sharjah is also unique as an emirate in that it is adjacent to both the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, on which it owns three exclaves: Kalba, Dibba Al Hisn and Khorfakkan. The latter is surrounded by the emirate of Fujairah and possesses a major east coast port in the form of the Khorfakkan Container Terminal – the only natural deepwater port in the region and one of the UAE’s major container ports. This chapter contains an interview with Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Sharjah and Member of the UAE’s Supreme Council; and interviews with Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairperson, Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq); Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala, India; and Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.