The Business Registration and Licensing (BRL) sector in the Department of Economic Development (DED), Dubai, issued 2,046 new licenses during January 2019, a growth of 20% compared to January 2018 (1,703). Among the new licenses issued, 64.5% were commercial, 33.7% professional, 1.2% related to tourism and 0.6% industry.

The ‘Business Map’ digital platform of DED, which seeks to reflect the economic realities in Dubai by providing vital data on each license category including their numbers and distribution on a monthly basis, saw 25,115 business registration and licensing transactions being completed during the month of January 2019, a growth of 6.6% compared to January 2018 (23,559).

The report showed that License Renewal accounted for 12,190 transactions during January 2019, a growth of 8.9% compared to January 2018 (11,195), while 5,263 transactions were related to Auto Renewal via text messages.

During the month of January 2019, the number of Trade Name Reservation was 3,320, a growth of 8.1% compared to January 2018 (3,071), while the number of Initial Approvals reached 2,459, a growth of 17.8% compared to January 2018 (2,087), and the number of Commercial Permits reached 1,341 permit.

BRL also issued 163 instant licenses. The Instant License is issued in a single step without the need for either the MOA‭ (‬Memorandum of Association‭) ‬or an existing location for the first year only.

The outsourced service centres of DED issued 18,258 transactions, a growth of 72.7% of the total BRL transactions issued in January 2019 (25,115), thus demonstrating their vital role in delivering value-added services to the public in Dubai.

The report also showed that the top nationalities who secured licenses in January 2019 were: India, followed by Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh, China, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Jordan, Sudan and the Philippines.

The report highlighted the distribution of the new licenses during January 2019 according to the main areas in Dubai, with Deira accounting for the largest share (1039), followed by Bur Dubai (1004), and Hatta (3). The top sub-regions that accounted for 54.3% of all the transactions were: Burj Khalifa (11.2%), Port Saeed (9.1%), Al Fahidi (6.9%), Al Khabaisi (6.3%), Al Marar (4.3%), Al Garhoud (4.2%), Dubai World Trade Centre 1 (3.5%), Naif (3.2%), Riggat Al Buteen (3.2%), and Al Barsha 1 (2.4%).

Trade & repair services accounted for 34.2% of the new licenses issued in January 2019 according to the distribution of economic activities, followed by Real estate, leasing & business services (25.6%), Building & Construction (16.0%), Community & personal services (9.8%), Hotels group (4.4%), Transport, storage & communications (3.6%), Manufacturing (2.4%), Financial brokerage (1.8%), Health & labour (0.8%), Education (0.8%), and Agriculture (0.6%).