(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Abu Dhabi has issued 2,389 licences during the first quarter of the year, as the emirate continues to attract new businesses.
Of the new licences, 2,270 were commercial, 99 were vocational, 18 were professional, one was an industrial license, and one an agricultural, fisheries and livestock license. Issued by the Trade License Division at the ADDED Abu Dhabi Business Centre, the total number of trade licences registered in the emirate rose to 110,247 licences. In the first quarter of 2015, over 2,500 licences were issued comparing to the 2,438 issued in the same period in 2014. Khalifa bin Salem Al Mansouri, ADDED acting undersecretary, said that the figures reflect the continuous attractiveness enjoyed by the business environment and the investment climate in Abu Dhabi, which attracts businessmen to establish new companies to benefit from the available advantages offered by the economy. "This comes at a time when ADDED, represented by the Abu Dhabi Business Center, is working hard to boost the competitiveness of the emirate and to attract new investments in several fields, through streamlining and simplifying business registration and initiation procedures and developing the services offered to investors and businessmen," he said. In this regard, the acting undersecretary quoted several projects and initiatives implemented by ADDED''s Abu Dhabi Business Center (ADBC) like the recently announced e-connection with some 27 local and federal government stakeholders involved in the licensing process, in addition to launching smart phone applications and providing online services on the ADDED''s website. He said that the results of the January-March quarter Business Cycle Index issued by the ADDED indicates considerable optimism amongst companies across all sectors and their positive evaluation of the present conditions, whether at the company level, their business sectors or the economy at large. This, he said, is due to the great expectations amongst businesses regarding the improvement of the economic performance of Abu Dhabi in the near future, which is reflected positively on the size of sales and prices. Al Mansouri added that the trends of the Trade Licences Index for January-March 2016 are consistent with those of the 2015 results, that were released at the beginning of this year, which shows the continued attractiveness of Abu Dhabi''s business environment and investment climate in spite of regional developments and unstable oil markets in the second half of 2015. This stresses the ability of Abu Dhabi non-oil sector to face the challenges posed by these developments. ADBC''s Trade License Report indicated that the total number of licensing transactions in the first quarter of 2016 amounted to 44,035 transaction, compared to 41,894 transactions during the same period last year. In terms of the kind of new licences issued during the first quarter of 2016, the Individual Establishment had the lion''s share with 1,729 licences, followed by LLC licences with about 440 licences, and then a branch license with 171 licences. One Person Company licences amounted to 43, while the professional licences issued were only three. One license each was issued to a joint stock company, to a public stock company, and to cooperative societies. Speaking on the occasion, Mohammed Munif Al Mansouri, ADBC acting executive director, said that the initiatives and programs carried out by ADDED to streamline and simplify licensing procedures contributed to the overall improvement of services offered to businessmen and investors. -
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