The real estate sector accounted for nearly 40 per cent of the 2,394 new licences issued for various trade activities in June in Dubai, the Department of Economic Development said on Sunday. In other sectors, trade and repair services accounted for 27 per cent of licences, community and personal services 12.6 per cent, building and construction 8.3 per cent, transport, storage and communications 4.5 per cent, and hotels 3.4 per cent. The largest number of licences were issued in the Bur Dubai area, followed by Deira and Hatta, according to the DED. It also said 58.5 per cent of licences were related to the professional sector, 38.9 per cent to commercial, 1.9 per cent to tourism and 0.7 per cent to industry. “Together, they created 7,598 jobs in the labour market,” the DED said. “Top nationalities who secured licences in June were Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Britain, China, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Lebanon, in that order,” it added. Dubai’s economy is forecast to grow 2.1 per cent in 2019 and 3.8 per cent in 2020 driven by the Expo 2020, which is expected to benefit the tourism, telecommunications, financial services, transportation, real estate and retail sectors, the DED said in April. Total foreign direct investment into the emirate more than tripled in the first quarter to Dh22.2 billion compared with Dh7.3bn in the same period last year, according to the Dubai FDI Monitor of the Dubai Investment and Development Agency. The DED also said it issued 250 instant licences, which are processed in a single step without the need for either a memorandum of association or an existing location for the first year, while the number of DED trader licences, which allows business activities on social media, reached 219 in June 2019.
