The UAE's Ministry of Economy on Wednesday said 11,802 complaints were received in the first 10 months of 2018 and 95 per cent were resolved during this period.

The ministry said in its Annual Achievement Report 2018 that its Department of Competition and Consumer Protection implemented about 240,795 cases of recall of goods, including cars, bicycles and other vehicles.

In order to protect consumers, the MoE conducted 22,186 surveillance rounds in different markets of the country, resulting in the levy of 1,354 fines.

The ministry revealed in its annual report that the UAE's non-oil direct and free zone foreign trade stood at Dh784 billion in the first half of 2018. Imports were worth Dh463 billion, re-exports totalled Dh232 billion and exports hit Dh90 billion. Total exports and re-exports in the first half of 2018 grew by 4 per cent compared to the same period in 2017, while the trade balance deficit declined by 23 per cent during the same period of comparison.

The Federal Customs Authority (FCA) last year put the UAE's general trade value from January to the end of June 2017 at Dh784 billion, compared to Dh777.6 billion during the same period of 2016, signalling a 1 per cent growth.

In 2017, the value of non-oil foreign trade, including free zone trade, amounted to Dh1.612 trillion, of which Dh979 billion were imports and Dh443 billion were re-exports. In 2017, the country exported to more than 100 regional and global markets.

The UAE's GDP at current prices for 2017, according to the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority, reached approximately Dh1,405 billion, achieving a growth rate of about 7.2 per cent over 2016, while the non-oil GDP at current prices for 2017 amounted to about Dh1,092 billion with an increase of 3.2 per cent over 2016. This makes the contribution of non-oil sectors in the GDP 77.7 per cent, according to current prices.

Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE's Minister of Economy, said the non-oil sectors witnessed significant progress over the past years and continued their growth during 2018, particularly in the domains of physical and electronic infrastructure, space, logistic and transportation, financial services, including the merger of banks to form giant global financial entities, renewable, nuclear and clean energy, foreign trade and wholesale and retail trade, including e-commerce, SMEs and startup sectors, including development of support, financing and training systems, technology and ITC sector, manufacturing such as petrochemicals, building materials, metal industries, food and pharmaceutical industries, as well as tourism, which includes the development of facilities, resorts and strategic tourism-related projects.

In its report, the ministry said 1,309 applications were received by the International Centre for Patent Registration until the end of the third quarter.

Approximately 13,556 trademark registration applications were received by the ministry until the end of October 2018, while 16,170 trademarks were registered, the registration of 6,741 marks renewed, 1,391 trademark transfer applications processed, and 53 licences issued for the use of a trademark. The number of applications for registration of intellectual works received by the ministry during the same period reached 791, 414 of which were for government agencies and 377 for individuals.

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