Investor confidence in Dubai as a competitive global hub, and in its business development potential, remained robust through the month of July 2018, with the Department of Economic Development (DED) witnessing 24,489 transactions related to business licensing and registration, a media report said.

A total of 1,651 licences was issued during the month, in addition to 12,532 licence renewals and 2,175 initial approvals, reported Emirates news agency Wam, citing data recorded on the "Business Map" digital platform of the DED’s Business Registration and Licensing (BRL) sector.

The "Business Map" tracks business registration and licensing in the DED, and seeks to reflect the economic realities in Dubai by providing vital data in each licence category, including their numbers and distribution, as well as investor trends on a monthly basis. Overall BRL activity and its distribution across sectors and areas in the emirate reaffirm improved investor confidence in the expansionary spending policies and growth potential in Dubai.

Among the total transactions recorded in July 2018, 3,128 were related to trade name reservation and 1,268 to commercial permits. Auto-renewal transactions amounted to 5,918, instant licences to 101, and 102 transactions were related e-Trader licences.

The BRL activity in July 2018 reflected momentum across all sectors, as new licences covered the commercial (60.5 per cent), professional (36.8 per cent), tourism (1.4 per cent) and industrial (1.3 per cent) categories. The outsourced service centres of the DED retained their edge in providing competitive services to the BRL customers, accounting for 67 per cent of the total transactions completed in July 2018.

The region-wise distribution of new licences shows Bur Dubai accounted for the lion's share, with 798, Deira had 712, New Dubai 133 and Hatta, eight. Among the top 10 sub-regions, Burj Khalifa had 14 per cent, New Dubai 8 per cent, Al Marar 5.9 per cent, Port Saeed 5.8 per cent, Dubai World Trade Centre 1 had 4.6 per cent, Naif 4 per cent, Al Garhoud 3.3 per cent, Al Karama 2.8 per cent, Al Muraqabat 2.1 per cent, and Hor Al Anz, 2.1 per cent.

The construction sector accounted for 17.3 per cent of the new licences, and community and personal services for 13.6 per cent, followed by hotels group (7 per cent), transport, storage and communications (3.5 per cent), manufacturing, (2.9 per cent), financial brokerage (2.5 per cent), health, labour and education (0.9 per cent), agriculture (0.4 per cent), and mining (0.1 per cent).

Indians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Chinese, British, Saudis, Jordanians, Syrians, and Kuwaitis were the top nine nationalities who were BRL customers, in that order during July 2018.