The UAE Ministry of Economy has today (Thursday, January 17, 2008) signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with the UAE’s economic departments regarding the implementation of the national Uniform Commercial Register (UCR) project. The UCR is mandated by the Council of Ministers, implementing a Supreme Committee decision to coordinate national economic policies, programs and strategies with the aim of unifying commercial and trade name registration, and classifying the country’s economic activities.
During a signing ceremony held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Dubai, UAE Minister of Economy H.E. Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi signed the MoUs with officials from the emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah; representatives from the municipalities of Al Fujairah, Dibba Al Fujairah and Ajman; and members of the Ajman Chamber of Commerce and Industry. H.E. Sheikha Lubna emphasized that the UCR project is the first of its kind in the country in terms of technical and implementation methods, and noted that the Ministry has spent around AED 20 million since 2005 for similar strategic projects to develop its technical infrastructure.
H.E. Sheikha Lubna said, “This project will effectively link the UAE’s economic chambers and local municipalities with the Ministry through a centralized system, facilitating efficient, non-repetitive, and uniform investor and trade name registration at the national level. It will also feature a database on commercial registers and licensed economic sectors containing valuable data on sizes and capital investments; thus providing critical information for future economic plans and modernization initiatives.”
“This signing ceremony is of major significance as it formalizes the standardization of trade and trade name registration at a UAE-wide level, which will facilitate faster and cheaper processing and ultimately benefit both investors and the national economy. I strongly urge our local economic departments and trade registry bodies to collaborate closely to experience the full benefits of this IT- and Internet-enabled link to the Ministry and all concerned departments,” added H.E. Sheikha Lubna.
During the ceremony, H.E. Sheikha Lubna commended the eight signatories present during the landmark event, all of whom are involved in the enforcement of the Commercial Registration Law and the organization, licensing and control of economic activities. The attendees included representatives from the Department of Planning and Economy in Abu Dhabi; Dubai and Sharjah Departments of Economic Development; the Economic Chambers of Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah; the Municipalities of Al Fujairah and Dibba Al Fujairah; and the jointly-signing Ajman Municipality and Ajman Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The signatories agreed to be sufficiently prepared to meet project objectives, which include the standardization of information, data and document transmittal, and trade and trade name registration documentation, as well as electronic archiving. They also committed to collaborating on the creation of a robust and consolidated database that would be easy to access and maintain.
An important stipulation of the MoUs is the formation of two working groups to separately manage the procedural and technical aspects of the UCR; members of which will be nominated by and from the Ministry and concerned parties a week after the signing of the agreements. The procedural team will manage the processes involved in implementing the UCR and managing the trade names register of the Ministry, while the technical team will work on the electronic link between the local and Ministerial systems.
Under the MoUs, the Ministry will establish a uniform guide for the classification of national economic activities and form permanent committees, comprised of representatives from the Ministry and the economic departments, and concerned authorities, which will be tasked to ensure compliance with stipulations of the final classification manual and constantly update the manual to ensure equitable representation. The Ministry will also form a committee to identify recurring brand names recorded prior to the implementation of the UCR, with its recommendations to be raised to senior officials of both the Ministry and the local departments.
The UCR project has been progressing at a record pace; the Ministry only recently forged agreements with various economic departments and local authorities on the standardization of the UCR and the unification of the classification of national economic activities. The project will complement the UAE’s diversification efforts and is expected to contribute significantly to the creation of effective strategies for sustained economic progress.
