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The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has recently issued its Business Progress Report on the Commerce Sector for February 2017. The report indicated the registration of 1942 new companies including 1375 new main commercial records and 567 new branch commercial records.
 
Limited liability companies accounted for 67% of new commercial records; 27% of the companies were registered in the category of Single-Person Company and 6% of the companies were registered in the category of Individual Corporations.
 
Contracting companies topped the list of most common activities in February, with 475 commercial records issued in this field. 207 commercial records were issued for restaurants and fast meal outlets while 203 commercial records were issued in the field of construction materials trading. Clothing, textiles and public goods trading followed with 144 records while 141 records were issued for cleaning services.
 
The report pointed out that 6803 total commercial licenses were issued, amended or renewed during the month of February 2017. 1445 new commercial licenses were issued while 795 were modified and 4563 commercial licenses were renewed.
 
A total number of 437 companies closed in February, representing 22.5% of newly registered companies.
 
Regarding write-off activities, textiles, clothes and public goods trading companies topped the list at 24%, followed by contracting companies at 23%. Trading in electrical and electronic appliances and computers followed in third place at 20%. Construction material trading accounted for 18% of write-offs while restaurants, fast food outlets and stores selling vegetables and fruits followed at 15%.  
 
The report has indicated that the total number of transactions that took place during February 2017 at the ministry’s headquarters in Lusail City as well as other branches reached 29919 transactions. 3280 transactions were processed at Lusail City while 26639 transactions were processed at other branches.
 
In the area of intellectual property rights, the report indicated that 40 new patent applications were issued in February 2017 while 128 patent applications were renewed.
 
In addition, 3578 trademarks have been registered during February, while 12 certificates were issued in the field of copyright and related rights.