The Business Registration & Licensing (BRL) sector in the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai completed 17,710 transactions including 1,221 new trade licenses during the past month according to the ‘Business Map’ digital platform. Renewal of Licenses accounted for 9,071 transactions while there were also 2,111 transactions related to Trade Name Reservation and 1,475 Initial Approvals.

The Auto Renewal facility being extended for existing licenses was used 4,271 times as recorded on the Business Map while there were also 84 e-Trader license transactions and 60 related to Instant License. The Business Map aims to provide a reliable indicator on the economic climate in Dubai as reflected on business registration, renewed as well as new licenses and overall economic activity.

The August 2018 BRL activity confirms Dubai’s capability to attract investments into varied sectors as the new licenses were distributed as follows: Commercial (60.7%), Professional (36.2%), Tourism (1.8%), and Industrial (1.3%).

The outsourced service centres of DED performed remarkably in August 2018 too accounting for 69.2% (12,262) of the total transactions, which underlines the vital role of the centres in providing value added services to DED customers.

The region-wise distribution of new licenses issued in August 2018 shows Bur Dubai in the lead with 645 licenses, followed by Deira (574) and Hatta (2). Meanwhile, the top ten sub-regions are: Burj Khalifa (13%), Al Marar (7.5%), Port Saeed (7%), New Dubai (6.9%), Naif (5.5%), Dubai World Trade Centre 1 (5%), Al Garhoud (4.7%), Al Rigga (2.6%), Al Karama (2.2%), Al Muraqqabat and Hor Al Anz (2.1% each).

Among the activities covered under the new licenses Trade & repair services accounted for 36.5% of licenses followed by Real estate, leasing & business services (28.6%), Building & construction (17.1%), Community & personal services (12.4%), Hotels group (7.3%), Transport, storage and telecommunications (4.8%), Manufacturing (4.1%), Financial brokerage (1.8%), Agriculture (0.8%), Health & labour (0.7%),  Education (0.6%), and Mining (0.1%).

The top ten nationalities among new licensees in August 2018 were: Indians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Chinese, Saudis, British, Jordanians, Bangladeshis, Sudanese and Germans.

The ‘Business Map’ tracks BRL activity to provide vital data on each license category, including their numbers and distribution as well as investor trends on a monthly basis.