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The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has issued its Business Progress Report on the Commerce Sector for September 2017. The report indicated the registration of 1015 new companies including 762 main commercial records and 253 branch commercial records.
 
Limited liability companies accounted for 60% of new commercial records followed by limited liability companies in the category of single-person companies at 26% while 13% of new companies were registered in the category of Individual Corporations.
 
Contracting companies topped the list of most common activities in September, with 167 commercial records issued in this field. 108 commercial records were issued for grocery stores and supply shops while 94 records were issued for public trading. The field of construction materials trading followed with 93 records while restaurants, cafeterias and ice cream shops accounted for 90 records.
 
The report pointed out that a total of 4368 commercial licenses were issued, amended or renewed in September. 735 new commercial licenses were issued while 507 were modified and 3126 commercial licenses were renewed.
 
A total of 212 companies closed in September, representing 21% of newly registered companies.
 
Regarding write-off activities, contracting companies topped the list at 36%, followed by Trading in construction materials at 22%. Electrical appliances and electronics trading and commodity trading followed in third place each at 21%.
 
 
The report has indicated that the total number of transactions that took place during September 2017 at the ministry’s branches reached 20859 transactions.
 
In the area of intellectual property rights, the report indicated that 48 new patent applications were issued in September while 129 patent applications were renewed. In addition, 2544 trademarks have been registered during September, while 5 certificates were issued in the field of copyright and related rights.