Dubai: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Dubai will be offered licence fee exemptions as well as discounts on visa-issuing fees as part of an agreement signed between two government bodies on Sunday.
Dubai Creative Clusters Authority (DCAA), a freezone governmental authority in the emirate, and Dubai SME signed an agreement to “to support entrepreneurs and enhance the capabilities” in the SME sector.
Dubai SME is the Dubai Department of Economic Development agency tasked with growing SMEs in the UAE.
Under the agreement, companies registered with Dubai SME and entrepreneurs will be exempt from licensing fees for five years if they are registered within the DCCA jurisdiction, according to an emailed statement.
The companies and entrepreneurs will also be offered “discounts on visa-issuing fees by charging the basic fees only”, the statement said.
According to its website, the DCCA was set up in 2014, replacing Dubai Technology and Media Free Zone Authority and tasked with developing creative industries in the emirate. It is the licensing entity for 4,450 local, regional and global companies, the statement said.
The agreement, signed by DCCA director general Ahmad Bin Bayat, and Dubai SME chief executive Abdul Baset Al Janahi, hopes to encourage more young, entrepreneurs “to set up innovative home-grown projects.”
“We seek to further boost Dubai’s position by transforming it into a regional and global hub for creative productions and enhancing the emirate’s competitiveness in a way that drives economic growth,” Bin Bayat said in the statement.
Al Janahi said Dubai’s “future is in creating a knowledge-based economy that sustains itself on innovation, and there is no better way to that future than investing in our SMEs, and enhancing the knowledge of people driving these enterprises.”
