Renew DED business licence via SMS

99.8% of licences under various legal forms

dubai — The Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai has launched a new service for owners of business licences to have them renewed automatically through a simple text message (SMS).

Introduced in partnership with Etisalat and du, the service allows owners to request license renewal by sending a text message to ‘6969’ after which they will receive a payment voucher, provided all due DED requirements are fulfilled. The license owner can then proceed to pay electronically or manually at the nearest outlet and complete the renewal process.

The initiative is part of the strategy and ongoing efforts of DED to facilitate doing business in Dubai and improve the competitiveness ranking of the UAE in the Doing Business Report of the World Bank. The automatic renewal covers 2,096 commercial activities that do not require external approvals, accounting to 99.8 per cent of licenses under various legal forms, except four licenses that require external approval from the Roads and Transport Agency .

“We launched the automatic renewal service earlier in 2015 under our ‘Hassle Free’ initiative and since then we have been following up on its progress over four months and working on developing the service over the next seven months based on the feedback and suggestion from our customers,” said Omar Bushahab, CEO of Business Registration & Licensing sector in DED.

Ahmad Aburahima, senior vicepresident - Government Relations, du said: “Our aim at du is to enhance the convenience and standard of living for entire communities across the UAE. This is a demonstration of our staunch commitment to the UAE leadership and its vision for the future by adopting the best practice global standards and integrating technologies that will enable luxury living in the future smart city.”