The total number of new economic licences in Abu Dhabi that were issued by Abu Dhabi Business Center of the Department of Economic Development (DED) reached 9,412 in 2017 compared to 9,089 new licences in 2016, indicating an increase by 3.5 per cent.

The report of the economic licencing activity in Abu Dhabi which was issued stated that the licences issued in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi during last year were distributed according to their types, reported Emirates news agency Wam.

These were 8,816 commercial licences, 245 crafts licences, 141 for tourism, 40 for agriculture and fish and animal livestock, 165 professional licences and five other licences.

Moreover, the report showed that the new economic licences of 2017 according to the activity’s legal form included 5,935 for individual institutions, 1,742 for company branches, 1,285 for limited liability companies, 439 for one person-companies, one for solidarity company, three for private joint stock companies, three for public shareholding companies, three for professional companies and one license for a co-operative society.

Khalifa bin Salem Al Mansouri, the DED’s Under-Secretary, said that the government of Abu Dhabi is keen on reinforcing the role of economic activities in the emirate by continuing to implement initiatives and projects that aim to continuously develop the business registration system in Abu Dhabi by reducing the procedures and cutting time and cost of doing business in the emirate.

The report showed that the total number of economic licences that were renewed in 2017 was 82,325 as compared to 77,706 in 2016, indicating an increase by 5.9 per cent. Until the end of 2017, the total number of economic licences that were registered at the DED reached 116,986 consisting of 76,523 in Abu Dhabi, 31,716 in Al Ain and 8747 in Al Dhafra.

Moreover, the report stated that the total number of economic licences that were registered at the DED included 94,599 commercial licences, 17, 695 craft licences, 1,957 tourism licences, 2,571 professional licences, 149 agricultural, fish and animal livestock licences, and 15 other licences.

The report pointed to the great change that was made to the e-transactions system. In 2017, 149, 300 e-transactions were fulfilled via the DED’s website and the ADBC App, compared to 53,632 transactions in 2016.

Mohammed Munif Al Mansouri, CEO of Abu Dhabi Business Center, explained that the implementation of the remote work system helped increase the rate at which e-transactions are fulfilled during 2017 compared to last year. He also pointed out that thanks to this system, 99,000 transactions have been fulfilled in 2017 compared to 29,862 transactions in 2016, which helped increase the rate at which e-transactions are fulfilled.

He emphasised that Abu Dhabi Business Center succeeded in achieving a 100 per cent digital transformation of all the services related to the licensing transactions of economic activities via the DED website and the ADBC App. This included the issue, renewal, modification and booking of the commercial name, permits, advertisements, fees, promotional offers and others.

The report from the Abu Dhabi Business Center showed that during 2017, 745 "Tajer Abu Dhabi" licences were issued and included 412 Tajer Abu Dhabi licences, 324 Tajer Abu Dhabi licences for cars and nine Tajer Abu Dhabi licences for Saudi nationals.

He added that the launch of "Tajer Abu Dhabi" licence initiative by the DED has had a major impact on encouraging nationals to join the work market in the private sector by helping them establish their own economic activity through facilitating and improving the procedures to obtain an economic licence without the need for a lease contract or an Articles of Association.