Do you think that the Amlak and Tamweel merger will be complete by January 2010?

The UAE’s economy minister insisted earlier this month that Dubai-based lenders Amlak Finance and Tamweel, which have effectively been shelved for over a year, will merge by January 2010.

“We are moving very forward,” Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri told Zawya Dow Jones. “By January 2010 we’ll start the process of implementing the solutions we have.”

A majority of respondents to Kipp’s poll don’t buy it; 39 percent of readers think the merger will be postponed (again), and 22 percent say the “merger will never take place.”

The government has delayed the merger for the undisclosed reasons. In May of this year, Tamweel’s chairman, Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said the government will unveil its merger plans for two financiers in a “few weeks.”

It’s been seven months.