Abu Dhabi, July 22, 2004 (WAM) -- Though UAE has marked an overallprogress in health, literacy, women empowerment and technological development, it is trailing one step when compared to its last year's48th position in the Human Development Index - a key aspect of the HumanDevelopment Report 2004 released worldwide by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) last week.

But pegged at 49th position, UAE ranks among the countries with high humandevelopment with Development Index Trends, calculated within a periodof 1975 to 2002, showing an upward trend. Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar arethe three other Gulf countries that have been included in the same categoryranking at 40, 44 and 47 respectively, fairing better than United ArabEmirates. Norway clinched the top position followed by Sweden, Australia,Canada and the Netherlands.

According to Khaleej Times, which reported the story in its issue of today,the 2004 report titled 'Cultural Liberty in Today's Diverse World' looksat many different policy approaches to multicultural nations and communities,from bilingual education and affirmative action plans to innovative systemsof proportional representation and federalism. The report argues thatall people have the right to maintain their ethnic, linguistic and religiousidentities.

"Cultural freedom is an essential element of human development. The freedomto choose one's identity and to exercise that choice without facing discriminationof disadvantage is vital to people's lives," said Nadir Hadj-Hammou, UNDPresident representative quoting the report.

Human Development Report ranks 177 countries according to the level ofhuman development achieved in each country through a Human DevelopmentIndex (HDI). The Human Development Index is a composite index that measuresthe average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of humandevelopment: a long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy atbirth, knowledge as measured by the adult literacy rate and the combinedgross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools, anda descent standard of living, as measured by GDP per capita in purchasingpower parity (PPP) US dollars.

The life expectancy at birth in UAE stands at 74.6 years, adult literacyrate at 77.3, combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary andtertiary schools at 68 per cent.

With 95 -100 per cent of the population having sustainable access to affordableessential drugs, UAE shows a considerable increase in health expenditurewhich stands at 921 PPP US Dollars. While the public health expenditurestands at 2.6 per cent of the GDP, in the private sector it is only 0.8percent. The child immunisation programmes conducted is also lauded in thereport as the below one year olds fully immunized against tuberculosisand measles shows a good 98 and 94 percent respectively.

UAE has also recorded one of the highest growth rates in population withan annual growth rate of 6.5 per cent. From the 0.5 million in 1975, theUAE population has soared to 2.9 million as per the 2002 figures. Thetechnology diffusion in UAE also fares much better. Out of 1000 people,291 having access to telephone mainlines, 647 being cellular subscribersand 313.2 Internet users.