Ajman Media City Free Zone announced on Monday that it planned to immediately scrap a previously-compulsory security deposit on visas for new companies that registered within its zone, a senior director told Zawya on Monday.

“Ajman Media City Free Zone has taken a decision to remove the requirement of the security deposits related to visa for any new company," Mahmoud Khalil Al Hashemi, the executive director of Ajman Media City Free Zone, told Zawya in an email interview. "This gives the business owners a big cost advantage and make(s) it easier and more cost effective for them to set up a new business in UAE,” he added.

The news had been announced in a press release sent by Ajman Media City Free Zone to the media earlier on Monday.

Prior to the announcement, businesses interested in registering in the free zone were required to pay a security deposit for each business visa. Al Hashemi did not say how much that deposit was, stating that the amounts varied according to several factors that included the category of visa applicant and a company's residency status.

“This decision is applicable to all the companies across all the sectors,” Al Hashemi said, adding that the regulation has been enforced with immediate effect.

Ajman Media City Free Zone is the latest organisation in the United Arab Emirates to announce an easing of regulations in a bid to attract more investment. Last month, UAE vice president and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, announced that a new insurance scheme would be set up for private sector employees across the UAE which would end the current requirement for firms to lodge a security deposit of 3,000 UAE dirhams per worker. The scheme is expected to cost around 60 dirhams per worker.

In May, the UAE cabinet also announced plans to adopt a new system that will allow international investors full ownership of onshore companies. It also said that it would grant long-term visas to residents who work in certain professions, including medicine and engineering, as well as to innovators and entrepreneurs.

The UAE, like other countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) had been working hard over the past couple of years to generate new sources of income and encourage foreign investment after the sharp fall in oil prices in 2014, which has impacted its economy.

 

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(Reporting by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Michael Fahy)
(yasmine.saleh@thomsonreuters.com)

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