Commercial or Professional License? What type of License should you have?
UAE Starting up a business is perplexing and uncertain ride’ say Startups who literally initiated from scratch. Breaking it down, a piece of the bigger puzzle is to determine the right type of license for your business registration.
The UAE mainly is divided into two major licensing Authorities namely; Free Zone and Mainland which administer in their own standards, tariffs, and requirements. Although these two differ on some points, they adhere to the same directive for the license categories.
Overall, licenses in UAE are classified under these four types; Professional, Commercial, Industrial and Tourism.
Professional License is acquired by businesses or companies who are service-oriented. Activities like Consulting, IT Services, Events Management, Restaurants, and other skilled focused activities do fall under this category.
Commercial License is for firms engaged in selling and trading goods, commodities and products. Specific and General Traders are under this category. Garments trading, Food, and Beverage trading and General Trading are samples of the activities.
Industrial License is issued to companies who manufacture foods and other kinds of light and heavy goods and those who do industrial works that are highly regulated by the relevant Authorities.
Tourism License is granted only to companies who practice tourism activities. Businesses like Travel Agency, Tour Operators and Hotels hold this kind of license.
Simple as it may seem, the above are only surface information for the types of licenses. It still can vary for activities with special conditions and approvals. For a detailed discussion and complete advisory, it is always suggested to seek help from the Business Experts.
