Dubai: On this Tuesday, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai made a declaration for the launch of Invest Dubai – a digital platform for entrepreneurs finding ways to set up shop in Dubai.
The new platform was given approval during the Executive Council’s meeting which took place on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Sheikh Mohammed. The platform contains over 2,000 commercial schemes and several licence types, Sheikh Mohammed provided in his tweet.
ترأست اجتماعاً للمجلس التنفيذي بدبي .. أطلقنا خلاله منصة https://t.co/tBJr2uhR76 .. نافذة رقمية موحدة ل٢٠٠٠ نشاط تجاري توحد العمليات وتنجز كافة المعاملات وتربط بين مختلف الجهات المحلية والاتحادية والمصرفية لبدء الأعمال بدبي.. ٢٠ جهة ..٤ أشهر و٨٠ الف ساعة عمل.. شكراً لفريق العمل pic.twitter.com/ZLBoEMrraO
— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) February 2, 2021
Creating Dubai the best and easiest place to do business
The new creative step is the way forward in order to make Dubai the destination of choice for entrepreneurs from all around the globe. UAE had provided a rule in November 2020 which provided the need for a UAE national to be the sponsor when setting up a business on the mainland.
Beginning from December 2020 entrepreneurs of all nationalities could begin the business with about 100% foreign ownership. In the Ease of Doing Business score by the World Bank in 2020, Dubai gained a high 94.8, based on 10 different components and stands in the top 20 easiest countries to begin a business.
The Invest Dubai platform has all the information, demand and steps of getting started with a Dubai-based business in one platform. From gathering the data on the kind of licence you need to details on the funding programmes provided, the platform offers a wealth of information for the entrepreneurs.
Instant licence
The Dubai DED Instant Licence allows entrepreneurs to have a licence in 5 minutes of time with no pre-approvals requirement. The Instant Licence approves entrepreneurs to start a business with no residence and no requirement for a bank account for 12 months. The licence is provided to many categories of activities and four types of initiation – Limited Liability Company, One Person L.L.C, Sole Proprietorship and Civil Company.
The licensee gets an establishment card from the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs across with three work agreements for employees from the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation once the trade licence is provided.
While this licence itself is not a new factor, the Invest Dubai platform provides you to check the accessibility of the licence based on activities, number of partners and type of company. It also provides you with the fee deposition if you were to go for the licence.
نعمل على تنفيذ توجيهات صاحب السمو الشيخ محمد بن راشد لكي تكون دبي المدينة الأفضل والأسهل عالمياً في ممارسة الأعمال، ووجهة أولى للاستثمار ورواد الأعمال ولدينا اليوم أكبر منصة موحدة لتسهيل الإجراءات بطريقة تتناغم مع أسلوب دبي وتوجهاتها الذكية وتعزز ثقة المستثمرين. pic.twitter.com/VYdrVHB371
— Hamdan bin Mohammed (@HamdanMohammed) February 2, 2021
Business Setup Guidance
For instance, we inspected the factor of Business Setup Recommendation on the platform for a restaurant with two ex-pat partners with choices to try the civil company formation. The website on the spot showed us the approximate prices for an Instant Licence while also providing a normal licence choice.
Different company types can be examined on the website based on your search, and while some choices are disabled, it shows you the company types you can inspect yourself if you know your activity and number of partners.
If you know what type of firm you’re getting to build, you can begin your business through the platform. Clicking on ‘Start your Business’ brings users to the option of mainland or free zone business. Once you select that, you can log in to the platform to begin the process. Prospective investors can also use the UAE Pass to log in.
Once registered, the platform provides users to manage the business through a customised dashboard which contains an overview of partners, licences, key performance indicators and other features.
Where should I start my business?
For mainland or free zones, it is good for a potential entrepreneur to know where exactly to base his or her business. The business map on the platform has a heat map of vital businesses in the emirate. It also provides vital businesses, top activities, business age range, areas and major activities in those areas, top sub-areas, etc. Finding over the map shows you the area name and the number of active businesses in the area. You can further filter these results.
If you’re not sure of which free zone to select for your FZE, the platform has an option to find the best one for your functioning. The website provides 19 free zones available in the whole of which you can then filter depending on business sector or industry, licence type, facilities required and amenities.
Residency and citizenship
The platform provides the investors to go through and know all the details of getting a visa or residency by the means of investment. UAE also presently provided citizenship for investors, doctors, professionals, talented people and innovators. The same people of residents can also apply to get a Golden Visa.
Other than these, each type of licence, based on activity and type of company, provides investors with residency options for themselves and their families. All these information are easily accessible from the Invest Dubai platform.
Start-ups
For start-ups in the ideation stage, the platform is greatly useful since it provides different incubator choices, funding programme details, and other features to know exactly how, when and where to begin. The mentioned areas for SME start-ups contain the Hamdan Innovation Incubator (Hi2) in Dubai SME, Dubai SME approved incubators such as Re-urban Studio, Astrolabes, The Co-Dubai, etc., and the Dubai Entrepreneurship Academy.
News and success stories
Other than this, the platform keeps interested readers up to date with the recent news and press releases in accordance with starting a business in Dubai. The website also provides options for business success stories that can prove inspirational for the next crop of entrepreneurs.
The interested people can register through the link – https://invest.dubai.ae/
