Dubai has over 15,000 Chinese investors, says DED report

Over 18,975 Chinese investors own 5,977 active business licences in the emirate of Dubai, according to a report issued by the Business Registration & Licensing (BRL) sector in the Department of Economic Development (DED), Dubai.
Between 2014 and 2018, 2,312 licences were issued for Chinese investors, with 371 licences issued in 2014, 424 in 2015, 396 in 2016, and 503 in 2017. Last year, 618 licences were issued to Chinese investors, an increase of 22.8 per cent over the previous year. Over the past years, Dubai has welcomed 6,364 Chinese investors who have established businesses in various sectors. In 2014, there were 1254 registered Chinese investors for new commercial licenses, 1,222 in 2015, 1,154 in 2016, 1,309 in 2017 and 1325 investors in 2018.
Of these licences, 4,811 are Limited Liability Companies, in addition to 722 Sole Proprietorship, 337 Civil Companies, 68 Branches of Foreign Companies, 15 Limited Liability Companies, eight Free Zone Branches, eight Branches of Companies based in other emirates, five Government Commercial Liaison Offices, one General Partnership Company, one Public Joint-Stock Company and one Business Forum Licence.
The report showed that commercial activities accounted for 4628 licences, followed by professional activities with 1192 licences, 132 tourism licences and 25 industrial licenses. The number of female Chinese investors is 4,900, compared with 14075 male investors. Readymade Garments topped the list of the ten business activities for Chinese investors, followed by Electronics, Women's saloon, Mechanical, engineering & contracting trade, Construction, Electrical trade, Transportation, shipping & warehousing, Auto parts and Furniture. The top five commercial activities included: clothing, footwear, gifts, textile & fabrics, and handbags & leather goods. Professional activities include: women's salon, beauty center, women's health care, Hanaa Salon.
The tourism activities included: internal tour operator, tour operator, travel and tourism agent, external tour operator, and holiday rental houses, while industrial activities included metal works for buildings, office furniture, home furniture, plastic bags, and maintenance of oil and natural gas wells.
- business@khaleejtimes.com