The Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) has announced a plan to issue instant trade licences to investors under a new initiative, a report said. 

The plan, under the new ‘120 days hassle free licence' initiative, will allow investors to have their licences issued immediately and will also drastically simplify the investment and business registration process, said the Gulf News report.

The 120-day licence allows businessmen to start businesses immediately and complete the rest of the requirements, such as approvals from other government authorities concerned, within the subsequent 120 days, it said.

DED, the government's trade licensing and regulatory body, renews and issues roughly 120,000 trade licences annually.

Business activities have been categorised as no-risk, low-risk and high-risk for the sake of evaluating the risk component.
More than 90 per cent of the businesses in the emirate are no-risk or low-risk and therefore a vast majority of businesses stand to benefit from the 120-day licence, it said.