Sharjah24: Sharjah Economic Development Department “SEDD” released its Annual Report of the year 2023 under the slogan “Continuous Giving”. The report included the most important developments and events witnessed by the economic sectors as well as the measures and efforts taken by the Department in all sectors and activities. It aims to provide a comprehensive tool for those dealing with the economic sectors in the emirate, and to introduce them to the most important results achieved, confirming its efforts aimed at achieving balanced and sustainable economic performance, and enhancing business continuity in various fields.
In this context, Hamad Ali Abdulla Al Mahmoud, SEDD Chairman said, “The sustainable development trends and economic development plans in Sharjah at various levels enjoy the support of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, who has laid solid foundations for a sustainable economic development model and a diversified competitive economy that makes the emirate a unique one.” He carried on that this approach is also highly supervised by Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed bin Sultan Al Qasimi, Crown Prince, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah and Chairman of the Executive Council, that resulted in making the emirate a home for investment and family entrepreneurship, a global destination for investors from all over the world, businessmen, green economy pioneers, major companies leading the industries of the future, and a incubator for investment in innovation, education, culture and tourism. In addition, the sustainable development efforts have resulted in having Sharjah obtaining the fifth level globally in 2023 among the top ten fastest growing cities in attracting foreign direct investment flows and attracting new quality projects.
To carry on, he added that SEDD is moving towards its sustainable goals according to well-studied methodologies and work plans, anticipating the future in economic and development work and meeting aspirations towards the highest level of excellence and leadership, to ensure achieving global competitiveness and raising performance indicators in various fields. Likely, the Department worked on issuing the best and most comprehensive annual reports, with the aim of documenting the achievements of economic development in the Department. The statistics and data included in the report reflect the extent of the efforts made by SEDD in carrying out its tasks, and its keenness on continuous development in accordance with what its strategic objectives require, and its aspirations aimed at providing distinguished economic services, with a solid approach.
Furthermore, SEDD results and data represented through its annual report for the year 2023 show its success in achieving exceptional growth in the targets of accelerating economic activities of all kinds. Therefore, the volume of issued and renewed business licenses increased by 4.1% in 2023, bringing the number of establishments to 66,365 licenses. Also, the issued licenses accounted for 11.7%, while the renewed licenses accounted for the largest share with about 88.3%. There is no doubt that this growth has positive effects in supporting the emirate’s GDP, which exceeded AED 145 billion by the end of 2023.
This positive growth was represented by varying rates in the business licenses issued, and more so in the commercial and industrial sectors and “Eitimad” domestic licenses. Renewed licenses also achieved similar growth in the commercial, professional and industrial sectors. Likely, “Eitimad” issued licenses witnessed a high growth of 21%, while renewed e-commerce licenses also recorded a record growth of 34%, as well as 19% for issued licenses.
Considering the most important indicators of business license performance for the past year, it was noted that investors were increasingly interested in establishing investment projects, especially in the commercial sector, while businesswomen’s projects became more capable in the local market, especially in the commercial and professional fields. Additionally, there has been an increase in the number of activities related to foreign investors and businessmen, as foreign ownership licenses constituted 13% of the total licenses in 2023, with 2,503 issued licenses and 6,109 amended licenses, with a total capital of AED 3.23 billion. On the legal and legislative level, the Department completed 18,176 documentation transactions for company contracts, while implementing 45,768 legal transactions.
Moreover, SEDD is keen to protect consumers and market by adopting strategic objectives to contribute to achieving and leading comprehensive economic development in the emirate. Therefore, it works continuously to ensure that all economic establishments operating in the emirate adhere to all applicable controls and provisions, provide the best services to the consumer, and ensure that goods that do not meet their terms and conditions are not promoted and sold. Thus, 216,184 inspection campaigns were carried out in the markets. Also, number of inspection campaigns were carried out on scales, where 3,795 commercial scales and gold scales were calibrated. It should be noted that SEDD teams also dealt with 14,664 complaints in a professional manner, raising the rate of resolving and closing complaints to 97%, whereas the rate of completing transactions on the same day they were received reached 92.8%, with an average of 4 minutes for the time to complete each transaction.
In the context of facilitating the procedures for providing services to customers, the total number of smart transactions executed reached 228,264 ones, including 46,449 transactions for the smart investor, 156,428 transactions conducted by service delivery centers, while 20,660 automatic renewal transactions were completed, in addition to 4,727 calligraphers’ transactions.
Additionally, SEDD succeeded in the completion of the new licensing system project by 100%, and achieving the first place among the government institutions and agencies in the data governance evaluation project. Also, it has continued its achievements in the areas of governance, auditing, quality and safety, including increasing the total number of certificates in the field of quality to 9 certificates after obtaining the ISO certificate for Benchmarking Management System specification in 2023.
For her part, Noura Yousif bin Sandal, Deputy Director of Economic Panning and Studies Department at SEDD, stated that issuing the Annual Report is considered an important annual event that keeps pace with the renaissance witnessed by the emirate, which requires the availability of data, statistics and analyses for investors and decision-makers. She clarified that the report monitors the most important economic indicators in Sharjah with the aim of documenting the economic developments and visions. This in turn facilitates various parties to view it and deduce the prospects and future of economic development in the emirate and also documents the economic progress witnessed in Sharjah. This is clearly displayed through monitoring and recording all developments and changes that occur annually at the level of various activities and sectors, and reflects the efforts made to advance economic development. Likely, bin Sandal explained that the report tracked the local economy in general and the economic indicators of Sharjah in particular, stressing that the results of 2023 revealed positive performance in many economic indicators in Sharjah, and included most sectors, which led to an the increase in customer satisfaction with the services they receive by a rate of 95.93%, while their satisfaction with the Department’s interaction with complaints reached 96.4%.
Also, bin Sandal pointed out that the first chapter in the annual report highlighted investments in Sharjah, exceptional indicators, national projects, businesswomen, foreign ownership and academic investments. Then, the second chapter dealt with competitiveness, economic sustainability, investment attraction, local industry, commercial incentives and legal support. She added that the third chapter addressed the issue of markets, comprehensive inspection campaigns, continuous protection, rapid response, interactive solutions and supervisory cadres. In addition, chapters four and five were mainly about digital transformation and services as well as communication, while chapter dealt with development and improvement. Lastly, chapter seven highlighted SEDD’s achievement in the area of developing human cadres and investing in them.
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