Dubai: The Department of Economic Development (DED) will introduce a 120-day business licence starting from May 15 this year, the department announced on Tuesday.
The new licencing service, which was announced during a press conference for the DED’s Smart Initiative conference, allows businessmen to start their businesses immediately and complete the rest of the licensing requirements, which includes approvals from other government authorities, within a 120-day period.
This option will be applicable only for low or no-risk businesses. All business activities that are not related to human beings, animals, plants and the environment are considered low-or-no-risk businesses.
Mohammed Shael Al Saadi, chief executive officer of the Business Registration and Licensing sector (BRL) in the DED, said that investors in Dubai will be able to focus more on their core business activity with the new initiatives being launched.
“We are committed to integrating state-of-the-art technology to improve customer experience and competitiveness levels as envisioned by our leadership. Dubai Smart Government has provided us with a framework to develop best-in-class service standards,” Al Saadi said.
The DED also will issue a guidebook to educate business owners and investor on how to start a business in Dubai, giving concrete details about the licencing requirements and procedures as well as defining which activities are permitted under commercial, industrial and professional licences.
This guidebook will be available on the DED website www.dubaided.gov.ae and on smart application, Business in Dubai. The printed format of the guidebook will be available for sale at an affordable price.
Smart initiatives
The department also announced the automation of the Memorandum of Association for partnership companies where one of the partners can register online and enter all details of other partners. The system will automatically contact each partner with a brief description of the licence.
Once all partners confirm their application electronically, the system will ask each of them to use their usernames and passwords to log in to their respective accounts to approve the Memorandum of Association.
On completion, the licence will appear on the smart phone as soon as the payment is completed.
Sami Al Qamzi, director-general of the DED, told the media on the sidelines of the conference that the department had stopped renewing business licences in the department two weeks ago to push all business owners to do it electronically.
“We don’t mind educating all the customers that come to the department on how to use the smart applications,” he said.
“Business owners and investors should have to adopt and practise these smart services as we are looking to provide 100 per cent of our services electronically in line with the initiative of [the] Dubai Smart Government,” Al Qamzi said.
“In the coming ten years we will be dealing with a new different generation that prefers to deal with the government entities electronically,” he added.
Electronic services are highly protected, credible and without extra fees, Al Qamzi said.