Indians and Pakistanis emerge as top investors in Dubai businesses

DUBAI: Investors in Dubai, buoyed by the expansionary spending policies and their anticipated impact on the economy, kept the business registration and licencing hectic in the emirate during the first month of 2018.

Dubai Economy issued 1,638 new licences and gave initial approval to 2,087 in 23,626 registration and licencing transactions in January 2018 as recorded in the "Business Map." Category wise, commercial licences led the list of new licences at 58 percent while professional licences stood second at 39.9 percent. Industrial licences accounted for 1.1 percent and tourism licences, 1 percent.

Indians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Britons, Saudis and Chinese were among the top investors in January 2018.

The "Business Map" tracks activities of the Business Registration and Licencing, BRL, sector in Dubai Economy to reflect the economic realities in Dubai, providing vital data on each category of licences including their numbers and category-wise distribution as well as investor trends on a monthly basis.

The distribution of BRL activities in January 2018 also underlines the growing appeal of the innovative and smart solutions introduced by Dubai Economy to enhance ease of doing business as well as the attractiveness of Dubai as a competitive hub for sustainable business growth.

The auto renewal service was used for 1,600 BRL transactions in January while 131 transactions related to instant licences and 41 e-trader transactions were also recorded during the same period. Trade name reservations accounted for 3,072 transactions and 11,195 were related to amendments. Commercial permits had a share of 1,494 in the total transactions.

The Outsourced Service Centres continued to attract a significant number of Dubai Economy customers as 19,239 transactions were completed through such centres. Trade and repair services retained its position as the number one activity licenced (35.1 percent) and real estate, leasing and business services followed with 26.2 percent.

Community and personal services (15 percent), construction (14.7 percent), hotel groups (7 percent), transportation, storage and communications (4.2 percent), manufacturing (2.8 percent), financial brokerage (2.5 percent), contracting (1.2 percent), agriculture (0.8 percent), health and labour (0.7 percent), and education (0.7 percent) were the other main licenced activities.