SHARJAH: The Sharjah Economic Development Department (SEDD) has released its ninth annual Business Licenses Report for 2022, offering a comprehensive snapshot of the emirate’s economic landscape and insights into investment and commercial activity. SEDD actively fosters and nurtures the growth of these businesses, driving performance across Sharjah.
Hamad Ali Abdalla Al Mahmoud, SEDD Chairman, stated that this report encompasses all key variables for understanding Sharjah’s business landscape. Moving beyond license numbers, it delves into crucial indicators like sector activity, geographical spread, legal structures, and foreign investment distribution, enabling investors to navigate the market with clarity and confidence.
Al Mahmoud explained that SEDD, through reviewing business data over the past years, has developed the business sector and improved all statistical and electronic services it provides based on customer and investor experiences. In addition, SEDD focuses on the current trend in studying th
e market, works on building economic indicators, pays attention to setting proactive visions, concentrates on the time and accuracy of transactions, facilitates procedures for incorporation contracts, while also provides more data and informational linkage with customer service centres and data governance in the Department. These are all procedures that serve the investors and provide them with the means of work and investment with the least possible effort as well as economic and capital cost. They also go in line with the orientations and wise directives of H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, and the pursuit of H.H. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah and Chairman of the Executive Council, to allocate all services and facilities to serve economic development at the level of the main industrial and commercial economic sectors in the emirate, especially encouraging the citizens of the emirate to be part
of the economic formation and benefiting directly from the significant economic development gains and savings that the emirate has achieved in the recent period. Al Mahmoud added that any establishment that has a license issued by SEDD plays a vital role in the growth of the emirate’s domestic product.
He noted that the Department has more than 72,000 active licenses, expecting the emirate’s GDP to reach AED140 billion by the end of 2023, compared to AED136 billion in 2022, a growth rate of 4%-5%.
Furthermore, the SEDD Chairman emphasised that the analysis conducted on the economic sectors indicates growth this year in three sectors, which are the wholesale and retail trade sectors, vehicle repair, the transportation and storage sector, and the accommodation as well as food services sector, which achieved growth of 10%, 9.5%, and 9.1%, respectively. Additionally, the volume of capital investment increased by 37.3% in the construction sector, while the manufacturing sector hit a growth rate of 21%, whereas t
he wholesale and retail trade sector grew by 15.8%. Moreover, the Department conducted transactions on 174,439 major activities at the level of the emirate, whereby the growth rate of such transactions on economic activities hit 5% in 2022. Such thing reflected in the growth of important sectors in the emirate that achieved significant output, led by the wholesale and retail trade sector, whose size exceeded AED31 billion, the manufacturing sector, which exceeded the value of AED22 billion and 17% of the gross domestic product, and the construction sector, whose size exceeded AED12 billion in 2022, which was reflected in the growth of the emirate’s GDP.
Source: Emirates News Agency