In collaboration with the World Bank, ADDED releases the Doing Business Report 2016

ABU DHABI, 15th June, 2016 (WAM) - The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development’s Competitiveness Office of Abu Dhabi (COAD) has issued its 2016 Doing Business Report in collaboration with the World Bank (WB) and with full coordination with all government bodies and private establishments that are involved in the Report’s six indexes, namely Starting a Business, dealing with Construction Permits, Registering Property, Enforcing Contracts, Getting Electricity and Trading Across Borders. Ali Majid Al Mansoori, ADDED’s Chairman, said that the significance of this report stems from the fact that its findings will define our development and modernisation course of action for all our procedures, processes and legislations regarding doing business, which will in turn improve the emirate’s competitiveness and services, thus help achieving the goals of Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 regarding the enhancement of the business environment. He commended the fruitful cooperation of all stakeholders in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi with the World Bank team in compiling this report by providing the team with all necessary data and information to come up with the 2016 Doing Business Report in the best form we all look for. This, he added, puts us face to face with another challenge to continue improving our procedures, processes and legislations in line with the world’s best standards, which constitutes one of the enablers of the emirate’s competitiveness regionally and globally. He stressed the importance of focusing on the report’s assumptions regarding local small and medium enterprises (SME), measuring the government measures applied to the them throughout their life cycle based on standard case studies, which will help provide quantitative indicators on the government procedures regulating business activities in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. "The significance of this report stems from its comparison of Abu Dhabi with the other 189 countries covered by the global report, including the GCC countries as the WB team has collected the data based on specific criteria," he added. Al Mansoori stressed the importance of the coming post-report period, which should witness continuous work and coordination with the Competitiveness Office of Abu Dhabi (COAD) to put a development plan and follow-up on its recommendations to ensure continuous improvement of all legislations and procedures on doing business in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. On his part, Awaidha Murshed Al-Marar, Chairman of the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport (DAMT), said that the World Bank’s annual Doing Business Report is a significant report whose findings help to identify the strengths of Abu Dhabi economy and the challenges it faces. Al-Marar commended the wise economic policies of Abu Dhabi under the visionary leadership of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President, and the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prime of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Chairman of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the role they play in establishing the pillars of sustainable development, following the best practices that support the business community and enable the local economy to assume leading ranks in global competitiveness indexes. The DMAT’s Chairman pointed out that the sustainable development strategy, set up by the wise leadership, depends on an advanced legislative and regulatory environment, modern infrastructure, quality service facilities and transparent business environment. All this helps to enhance the business environment, develop the private sector, diversify economy, promote the remarkable achievement record of Abu Dhabi and prepare for more achievements to come. "The success of economies and organisations is measured today by their competitive advantages, and the DMAT is continuously working to develop and improve procedures and measures for more business efficiency and better services to be provided to the emirate’s investors and population at large," he went on to say. "The clearly and thoroughly planned Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, supported by appropriate regulatory environment and free economy principles, coupled with the partnership between the public and private sectors and the cooperation amongst government bodies to provide investors and the community with integrated services, all are factors that support the local investment environment, making the Emirate of Abu Dhabi an attractive hub for investment and an ideal place for business, concluded Al-Marar. Commenting on the report, Khalifa bin Salem Al Mansoori, ADDED Acting Undersecretary, stressed the significance of ADDED’s initiatives that aim to continuously improve the registration system for businesses in Abu Dhabi by minimising the procedures, time and cost of doing business in the emirate, which helps attract investments, creates an attractive business environment and gets the highest competitiveness points for the emirate. "There is a need to continue our meetings with stakeholders in the near future to put a work plan to implement the World Bank recommendations included in 2016 Doing Business in Abu Dhabi Report and this plan is set to be approved by the Executive Council next August so that quarterly reports start to be compiled and the report recommendations implemented," he explained. Al Mansoori pointed out that the results of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi’s indicators in the 2016 Doing Business Report have seen noticeable improvement compared of the results of 2012 report. In Starting a Business index, there was a progress of 26 degrees, in dealing with Construction Permits, there was a progress of 18 degrees while Abu Dhabi came fifth worldwide in terms of Enforcing Contracts. Al Mansoori noted that the two indexes of Getting Electricity and Trading Across Borders were introduced for the first time in the 2016 Doing Business in Abu Dhabi Report and they will be benchmarked against several international indexes included in the Report. An improvement plan will be set in the near future to enhance Abu Dhabi competitiveness regionally and globally. He noted that in terms of enforcing contracts, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi came within the best five countries worldwide, which is a great achievement for Abu Dhabi government whose Economic Vision 2030 aims to be amongst the world’s five governments across all indexes. The ADDED’s Competitiveness Office of Abu Dhabi (COAD) has hosted a specialised World Bank team to prepare the 2016 Doing Business in Abu Dhabi Report. The team met with representatives of relevant government departments and a number of private sector representatives to evaluate Abu Dhabi’s position against the report’s indexes. The team visited The Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport, the Municipality of Abu Dhabi, the Judiciary Department, Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority, Department of Finance, Abu Dhabi Customs Administration and Khalifa Port. In these visits, the team was briefed on the efforts put to improve and develop the indexes of these bodies in light of the local laws and procedures of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. These indexes are: Starting a Business, Dealing with Construction Permits, Registering Property, Enforcing Contracts, Getting Electricity and Trading Across Borders. In this regard, Ms Hala Al Ameri, COAD’s Director, said that the Competitiveness Office is working on improving the competitive environment of the emirate in coordination with various government and private entities; facilitating business environment, developing competitiveness policies and initiatives, monitoring competitiveness performance and providing the necessary suggestions to develop competitive thinking to encourage investment in the emirate. Al Ameri said that the COAD will cooperate with stakeholders to identify improvement opportunities and to put a comprehensive action plan that ensures quick gains by giving priority to simple, uncomplicated reforms and amendments and the adoption of programs and initiatives that boos the emirate’s competitiveness on the short and medium run in terms of macro economy, government processes, business sector and infrastructure based on the success criteria set by Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030. According to the findings of the 2016 Doing Business Report, the "Starting a Business" index has shown that Abu Dhabi came second amongst the GCC states, with 6 procedures and 6 business days, which reflects the easiness of starting a business in Abu Dhabi, especially since the establishment of Abu Dhabi Business Center which has reduced the trade licensing procedures by 50% and reduced the time required for licensing by 60% through some important reforms in the processes followed. The report said that the significant changes that helped improve the results of this index were the merging of the membership in Abu Dhabi Chamber and the trade license issued by the ADBC in a single procedure and the registration of the articles of association at the Ministry of Economy in one single step. Some procedures were cancelled including the ADDED’s inspection requirement, the requirement and cost of getting a no-objection certificate from the Waste management Center to dispose of waste and the requirement of putting a sign bearing the Arabic name of the Company in addition to the ADBC’s introduction of electronic licensing procedures. Commenting on this issue, Mr Mohammed Munif Al Mansoori, ADBC’s Acting Executive Director, stressed ADDED’s commitment to develop the licensing procedures across the emirate to help develop an ideal business environment while also providing clients and businessmen with satisfactory services that meet their expectations and finalise all their procedures from their own offices within an integrated trade licensing electronic system. He pointed out that in the last year or two, the ADBC has launched several initiatives including the fast renewal application in addition to 14 e-services that address trade licensing procedures, namely trade name booking, renewal and search; the issuance, renewal, amendment and tie-up of commercial license; the ADBC Info Desk; issuing permit certificates for advertising purposes; license inquiries through the portal of Abu Dhabi government; government to government (G2G) license inquiry service; license GIS inquiry service; the e-inspector; the e-connection with government bodies; the electronic trade directory, electronic archiving and payment of fines. He added that with the completion of the e-connection system that ties all local and federal government entities across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi will enable ADBC clients to issue their new licenses within two to four working days only, thus enabling the client to get his or her papers without having to go to other stakeholders. The ADBC remains the single window to apply for a commercial license after preparing all required documents. This would eventually reduce redundancy and double work and minimise the time and effort needed to get the required service. Regarding the index of enforcing contracts, the findings of the 2016 Doing Business in Abu Dhabi Report have shown that the emirate is among the top five countries worldwide, scoring 201 days, thanks to the numerous improvements introduced by the Judiciary Department - Abu Dhabi into its systems, including easy access to defendants, stricter requirements on the part of plaintiffs to provide accurate addresses, launching the electronic case filing system and the electronic Case Management System (CMS) to help follow-up the files of cases and the court dates and time schedule, introducing the Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) to track files using radio frequencies and RFID tags to control the course of cases and identify its location and movement to make sure they don’t go out of their appropriate course and jurisdiction. Commenting on these steps, Chancellor Yousuf Saeed Alabri, Undersecretary of Abu Dhabi Judiciary Department (ADJD), stressed the Department’s commitment to actively contribute to Abu Dhabi’s endeavour to achieve its aspirations as per Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 by establishing a judicial system on par with the highest international standards to help create an investment-attracting business environment. He said that the directives of H.H. Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, ADJD Chairman, were the starting point for a race to provide the best possible services after reviewing the legal procedures related to contract enforcement as a key index in the assessment of competitiveness. Alabri commended the steps taken by ADJD to get transformed to the smart government and provide the best legal services. He noted that the existence of a specialised commercial court and its excellent performance in terms of fast solution to the cases presented to it constitute one of the key indexes through which ADJD has contributed to a healthy business environment, making Abu Dhabi a competitive market at the global level after securing the first position regionally. Regarding the index of Dealing with Construction Permits, the Report showed that the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is among the world’s top five countries as the process to get a construction permit in Abu Dhabi became 33% faster than it was in 2012. The steps to get the permit become 16% less than they were in 2012 , thanks to some important reforms introduced by the government of Abu Dhabi to facilitate the issuance of construction permits. The Report reviewed the main reforms undertaken to improve the index of dealing with Construction Permits in the emirate. Such reforms include the establishment of a single service window to issue planning and construction permits, launching some electronic services, developing the feature of getting initial approvals and construction permits, the availability online of Performance Certificates, automating inspection applications and facilitating the inspection process itself, which is done jointly in coordination with other competent bodies in addition to setting requirements that would ensure the safety and sustainability of construction projects and the approval of the consultants supervising them. Regarding Abu Dhabi’s findings in the index of Dealing with Construction Permits, the Report recommended the implementation of short term improvement opportunities like facilitating the pre-construction requirements of low risk buildings, standardising all initial approvals within the single service window, promoting transparency and streamlining the final inspection procedures. Regarding the property Registration index, the 2016 Doing Business in Abu Dhabi Report said that registering properties has become easier after minimising the registration procedures to two, making Abu Dhabi the second in the GCC countries with 2 procedures and two working days, and one of the top twenty countries worldwide in the property registration index, ahead of the high-income countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and nearer to Singapore and Switzerland. Commenting on this index, Awaidha Murshed Al-Marar, Chairman of the Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport (DAMT), said that there are a number of legislations that support doing business and investing and enhance competitiveness in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. One of these is the new real estate law which DAMT started to implement this year, including a complete set of legislations that promote the principles of good governance and transparency in this sector, safeguard the rights of investors and attract more investments. Al-Marar quoted the No-Objection Certificates program for Abu Dhabi facilities and infrastructures approved by the DAMT in cooperation with government stakeholders, saying that this program has reduced the required procedures for individuals and organisations to obtain no-objection certificates and reduced the time required to issue construction permits. On the index of Getting Electricity, the Report noted that Abu Dhabi came second amongst the GCC countries, with 5 procedures needed and with the least cost which is 19% of the per capita national income compared to North Korea and Taiwan, respectively the first and second worldwide as they scored 39.8% and 42.8% of the per capita national income respectively. As for Trading Across Borders index, the report’s findings have shown that the Emirate of Abu Dhabi comes first across the region, scoring 6 hours for compliance with the documentary conditions and requirements with a cost of USD 257 and 10 hours as the necessary time to import, with a cost of USD 339. Commenting on this index, Mohammed Khadem Al Hameli, Deputy Director General of the General Administration of Customs, Abu Dhabi, said that the General Administration of Customs has given considerable interest to the study conducted by the World Bank in cooperation with ADDED as the Administration is always seeking to simplify procedures and facilitate the trade movement and exchange as it believes that this will boost the ability of Abu Dhabi economy to compete locally and globally, stressing the Administration commitment to maintain the positive results and improve them in the future. Al Hameli noted that the General Administration of Customs is working on developing qualified talents in all fields of custom work and contributing to the development of legislations and laws that support the development process and encourage investment by creating a competitive, resilient business environment. "To achieve this, the Administration is developing custom clearing systems and processes in entry points, migrating to custom smart e-services, bolstering local and international cooperation ties in the field of customs through bilateral and international agreements and MoU’s and enforcing the rules and terms of international treaties to facilitate custom procedures and streamline international trade," he explained. He added that one of the initiatives under development by the Administration is finalising the Integrated Border Management, by implementing the service single window tool, exchange of data, connecting with partners and stakeholders, implementing Abu Dhabi Customs’ Approved Economic Operator (AEO) in addition to documenting all customs procedures and publishing them online. Al Hameli concluded by stressing the Administration’s commitment to implement the principles of Customs Risk Management System on individuals and shipments as per the latest world practices in this field, to use new inspection, communication and intelligence techniques, to develop the operation of x-ray scanning devices and connect them with the "Dhabi" system and finally to achieve the optimal use of resources to facilitate legitimate trade procedures. - Emirates News Agency, WAM - http://www.wam.ae/en/news/economics/1395296727602.html http://www.wam.ae/en/news/economics/1395296727787.html http://www.wam.ae/en/news/economics/1395296727831.html