Dubai perseveres amid crisis with soaring business registration applications

The Dubai Customs completed a whopping 107,000 business registration applications even as the world struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic. A 95% comparative growth is recorded this year as the first five months of 2019 recorded a mere 55,000 applications.

The first five months of 2020 witnessed 358,700 refund requests, 220,700 certificate/report requests, and 146,900 inspection date booking requests. The Dubai Customs also completed 36% more customer requests (5.9 million) from January to May compared to the 4.4 million in the same time period in 2019.

In the month of May alone, the number of transactions saw an increase of 10.6% in comparison with the 2019 statistics. The Dubai Customs boasts of a highly advanced infrastructure, smart services and stimulus packages which has greatly contributed to the effective response to the pandemic and economic resilience. Their Smart Workspace, with its increased efficiency, enables them to complete a form within an average of four minutes.

Customer declarations skyrocketed to reach 5 million from January to May 2020 compared to the corresponding months in 2019. 2020 witnessed nearly a million declarations in January and February, 1.3 in March, 691,000 in April and approximately a million in May too.

“Our wise leadership supports the business and trade sector in these challenging circumstances. A number of initiatives launched by the government have helped the business sector keep going, enhanced liquidity and reduced the impact of the current global economic situation. This is clearly manifested in the growing number of customs transactions handled by Dubai Customs in the first five months of this year.”

Dubai Customs has been successfully able to complete 99.2% of their total transactions through online channels, thanks to the highly advanced technology that they utilize.