DUBAI - The Business Registration and Licencing, BRL, sector of the Department of Economic Development, DED, Dubai, has issued 4,459 new licences in February 2020 that created ?11,877 ?jobs.

Among the new licences issued, 72.4 percent were professional, 26.1 percent commercial, 1.1 percent related to tourism and 0.4 percent for industry. Deira accounted for the largest share (2,573), according to the distribution of the licences in the main areas, followed by Bur Dubai (1,883), and Hatta (three) licences.

The businessmen who secured new licences in February 2020 included those from Britain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Philippines and Sudan.

The "Business Map" digital platform of DED saw 32,740 business registration and licencing transactions in the month of February 2020, while the outsourced service centres of DED issued 24,546 transactions, 75 percent of the total BRL transactions issued during the month of February 2020.

The report showed that Licence Renewal accounted for 12,568 transactions in February 2020, while 6,224 transactions were related to Auto Renewal via text messages. On the other hand, the number of Trade Name Reservations was 5,770, while the number of Initial Approvals reached 4,810, and the number of Commercial Permits was 1,494.

The BRL also issued 218 instant licences in February 2020, while the number of DED Trader licences, which facilitates conducting business activities on websites and social media channels, reached 335 in February 2020.

The top sub-regions, which accounted for 63.5 percent of all transactions in February 2020, were Al Garhoud (19.6 percent), Burj Khalifa (10.7 percent), Oud Al Muteena 3 (9.8 percent), Trade Centre 1 (7.8 percent), Umm Al Ramool (2.9 percent), Port Saeed (2.9 percent), Al Marrar (2.6 percent), Naif (2.4 percent), Al Qubaisi (2.4 percent) and Al Fahidi (2.4 percent).

Real estate, leasing and business services accounted for 50 percent of the economic activities licenced in February 2020, followed by trade and repair services (21.7 percent), building and construction (9.7 percent), community and personal services (6.9 percent), transport, storage and communications (3.4 percent), hotels group (3 percent), manufacturing (2.4 percent), financial brokerage (0.9 percent), contracting group (0.8 percent), education (0.5 percent), health and labour (0.4 percent), and agriculture (0.3 percent).

© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2020.