DED launches brainstorming with businessmen to address customer concerns and improve services

Dubai recently held a brainstorming session with a group of businessmen as part of improving investor relations and service delivery. The meeting was part of the Business Registrations and Licensing (BRL) strategy to gather customer feedback and promptly address their concerns. "The investor is our most important customer and our top priority is to ensure that our services enable them to operate in a competitive environment that guarantees optimum efficiencies. As part of our strategy, we have decided to continue such brainstorm meetings with investors every quarter," said Saeed Al Marri, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of BRL. "Our focus is on being a responsive government authority that works with customers. It will reinforce the message of public-private partnership that Dubai upholds and the emirate's vision of being the number one place to do business," Al Marri added. Investors attending the session described the major challenges they face with regard to licensing procedures and put forward various suggestions. One of the suggestions was to provide the full range of DED e-services through lawyers' offices and extend the time granted for registering trade names after initial approvals from the 24 hours being given presently. Khulood Obaid, Senior Manager (VIP Section) at BRL said that based on the investor feedback DED has decided to offer the e-services as demanded in three lawyers' offices on a trial basis and allow three working days from initial approvals to register the trade name. DED will also look into setting up a hotline to respond to customer queries round the clock. "We are expanding our dialogue with investors by simplifying procedures and ensuring that businessmen seeking to manage their licenses get their rights along with convenience. BRL has progressively rolled channels like the web, service agencies, partner offices and mobile applications to enhance customer convenience," added Khulood. The next quarter will see BRL hosting representatives from lawyers' offices and large international companies to gather their feedback and opinions.