The total number of trade licenses issued and renewed in the Emirate of Sharjah reached 33,150 in the first half, achieving the highest growth since the beginning of the year, according to the data released by Sharjah Economic Development Department (SEDD) .

''However, the first quarter of this year came in second place with the number of licenses issued and renewed reached 16,811 licenses. On the other hand, the second quarter ranked the third place with a number of 16,339 issued and renewed licenses, the SEDD said.

As for the distribution of licenses in the branches of the Department, the issued and renewed licenses in SEDD main headquarter that is located at Sharjah City reached the highest rate with a total of 14,444 licenses at the first half of 2017. This number was followed by the licenses issued and renewed at the Industrial Area Branch which hit 12,315 Al Dhaid Branch came in third place with 3,446 licenses, 19 percent growth over the same period of last year 2016 which reached 2,896 licenses followed by branch Khor Fakkan where the number of licenses issued and renewed works was 1,371 licenses.

Khalfan Al Herathi, Director of SEDD Branches Department, stated that these figures show SEDD’s efforts in easing the procedures and speeding up the processes as well as developing the reception offices.

He pointed out that according to statistics, the distribution of licenses was balanced according to the geographical distribution, which is seen from the growth in the issuance and renewal of licenses in Al Dhaid Branch in the context of attention to geographical economic development and horizontal expansion, not just vertical.