Economic activity in Dubai remained positive during the first nine months of this year with 10 new company licences being issued in every business hour.

As many as 15,268 new business licences were issued by Dubai's Department of Economic Development including 1,152 in September alone as the emirate continued to attract investors looking at competitive locations.

Accounting for 65 per cent of the total, commercial licences took the lion's share with 9,978 licences, followed by professional licence at 4,997 - accounting for 33 per cent of the total. While industrial and tourism licences made up one per cent and 0.9 per cent with 158 and 135 licences - respectively. The number of industrial and professional companies grew 5.3 per cent and 10.7 per cent, respectively.

In all, more than 100,000 commercial, professional, industrial and tourism licences were renewed during January-September 2017 period.

"Dubai continues to benefit from its diversification away from oil as growth expectations for non-oil-related industries remain high," said Gareth El Mettouri associate director, Robert Half Middle East.

During the month of September, Dubai issued 1,152 commercial, professional and industrial licences.

The Business Registration & Licensing (BRL) sector in Dubai Economy also issued 1,607 initial approvals and reserved 2,423 trade names for investors during September 2017 in addition to 1,758 commercial permits, indicating robust business activity and investor confidence.

Overall, 18.577 transactions were concluded by BRL last month, which included 9,079 licences that were renewed.

The outsourced service centres of Dubai Economy accounted for 13,858 of the total transactions reflecting the popularity of such centres on account of their growing presence across the emirate and the convenience they offer to investors.

Among the new licenses, 63.3 per cent (709 licenses) were commercial and 36.6 per cent (423) were professional ones. Industrial licenses accounted for 1.1 per cent (12) and there were eight Tourist licenses, accounting for 0.7 per cent.

Investors seem to be particularly pleased with the Instant License initiative of Dubai Economy as 64 such licenses were issued in September.

An Instant License can be obtained within five minutes without having to submit the memorandum of association or lease contract of the premises for the first year. The investor should submit the lease contract and memorandum of association upon renewal of the license.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published in Khaleej Times on Sunday October 29th, 2017 http://bit.ly/dubai-sees-strong-activity-issues-10-new-licences-every-hour