Infrastructure development promotes economic growth through its positive impact on jobs, productivity, and efficiency. Expanding access to infrastructure services increases the chance of economic inclusion of the hitherto economically excluded segments of the population which then leads to inclusive growth. However, many developing countries have a massive infrastructural gap and consequently, a large proportion of the population is without access to basic services such as electricity, water, and transportation. The biggest setback in expanding infrastructure services is the lack of financing and this leads to the persistent infrastructural gap. Traditionally, infrastructure projects are financed from government purses but limits in the government's ability to finance big infrastructure projects mean the gap will continue. To close the financing gap, it would be prudent to consider innovative funding schemes rather than relying on tax revenue. The main aim of this assignment is to allow you to assess the state of infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates and propose the most appropriate financing schemes given the infrastructure financing ecosystem in the jurisdiction. You are required to carefully examine the nature of infrastructure development in a jurisdiction by assessing the development of each sector separately. At the same time, you should evaluate the trends in access to infrastructure services over a period of at least 15 years (national data on this may be sourced from World Development Indicators of the World Bank). Using publicly available information, you should also identify the challenges in infrastructure finance and finally propose alternative financing schemes that are likely to work in the local context.

The report should be structured as follows:

1. Introduction This is where background information on the population and economy of a country is presented. You may source data from CIA World Factbook available at https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook.

2. Infrastructure development presents infrastructure development and the state of infrastructure services. You are expected to provide a detailed account of the government's effort in developing infrastructure services across various sectors including the construction of roads and highway, railways, airports, ICT, water and sewage services, energy generation, etc. This should be followed by presentation of the current state of each sector supported by data from African Infrastructure Development Index(AIDI available at http://infrastructureafrica.opendataforafrica.org/rscznob/africainfrastructure-development-index-aidi-2019)

3. Trends in access to infrastructure services this is where you present and discuss the trends in access to infrastructure services using data from World Development Indicators.

4. The infrastructure finance ecosystem

5. Problems and challenges in infrastructure finance 6. Summary and conclusions should also highlight the prospects and opportunities