Oil-rich UAE will channel $500 million this year into development projects in neighboring Oman as part of a $2.5 billion pledge within a Gulf aid program, a top Emirati official said on Wednesday.

“The UAE government will pump $0.5 billion this year through the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development,” said the fund’s chief Mohammed al-Swaidi in Oman.

He stressed that the funds will be part of a “UAE grant of $2.5 billion, that is the UAE’s contribution to the Gulf Cooperation Council’s program launched in 2011 to help Bahrain and Oman,” which were hit by Arab Spring protests.

The six GCC states decided at a meeting in March 2011 to establish a $20-billion fund to finance development projects in Bahrain and Oman, which have limited energy resources.

In addition to Bahrain, Oman and the UAE, the GCC includes Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The four other countries pledged to fork out $5 billion each in aid to be divided equally between Bahrain and Oman.