WAM – The Department of Economic Development, DED, Abu Dhabi, has stressed its commitment to implementing initiatives and projects that aim to improve cooperation and coordination with its strategic partners in the government, semi-government and private sector, to improve commercial licensing procedures and develop a more attractive investment environment in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
The DED’s Abu Dhabi Business Centre has called on its clients, including businessmen and investors, to add the page of the Unified Number in passports of local and expatriate clients as a new requirement for all commercial licensing transactions across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This, the centre said, will streamline and reduce procedures within the electronic connection project between the DED and other government bodies to process transactions electronically based on the special data like the Unified Number, the ID number and others.
Commenting on the project, Mohammed Munif Al Mansouri, Acting Executive Director of Abu Dhabi Business Centre, said that the e-Connection project between the DED and other public and private bodies in terms of commercial licensing procedures aims at facilitating procedures for businessmen and investors and make the licensing process more efficient and streamlined.
“The importance of adding the Unified Number as a new requirement for licensing procedures lies in the fact that it saves clients the burden of going to several departments, including the Ministry of Labour, to ask for the Establishment Card, and this requirement is part of Phase 1 of the e-Connection project with the Ministry of Labour which will depend on the individual’s unified number for reading data from the DED system,” Al Mansouri explained.
He added that with the completion of Phase 2 of the e-Connection project with the Ministry of Labour, clients and businessmen will not have to go to the Ministry to get the Establishment Number, as this will be done automatically when the trade license is issued. This will minimise procedures and enhance the emirate’s competitiveness in terms of data exchange amongst stakeholders.
Al Mansouri said that adding the Unified Number to the commercial licensing requirements depends on a specific mechanism to exchange electronic data between the DED and other government bodies, especially the Ministry of Labour; this enhances communication and coordination channels on the government level, supporting the decision-making process and boosting the competitiveness of business practices in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
He concluded that it is necessary to acquaint the DED clients and commercial license owners with this procedure as a prerequisite before formally launching the project. They should be notified to provide the Unified Number when they follow-up commercial licensing procedures so that everything goes easily when the project is launched in March.
Work on the project of the Unified Number requirement for licensing began in October 2015 based on consultations during the visit of the World Bank to assess the business practice in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. There was communication and coordination with representatives from the Ministry of Labour on common areas in the systems of the two parties.
The data to be exchanged in this project were also discussed and approved. Based on this, Phase I was successfully completed and tested in December 2015 while Phase II will be formally launched in March.