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The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has issued its Business Progress Report on the Commerce Sector for May 2017. The report indicated the registration of 2227 new companies including 1595 main commercial records and 632 branch commercial records.
 
Limited liability companies accounted for 63% of new commercial records followed by limited liability companies in the category of single-person companies at 22% while 14% of new companies were registered in the category of Individual Corporations.
 
Contracting companies topped the list of most common activities in May, with 925 commercial records issued in this field. 711 commercial records were issued for restaurants, fast meal outlets and fruit and vegetable shops, while 475 commercial records were issued in the field of clothing, textiles and public goods trading. The field of construction materials trading followed with 471 records while 432 records were issued for services and paperwork activities.
 
The report pointed out that 17777 total commercial licenses were issued, amended or renewed during the month of May 2017. 4880 new commercial licenses were issued while 821 were modified and 12076 commercial licenses were renewed.
 
A total number of 390 companies closed in May, representing 17.5% of newly registered companies.
 
Regarding write-off activities, contracting companies topped the list at 25%, followed by textiles, clothes and public goods trading companies at 21%. Restaurants, fast food outlets, vegetable and fruit shops, stores trading in construction materials, electrical and electronic appliances and computers followed in third place at 18%.

The report has indicated that the total number of transactions that took place during May 2017 at the ministry’s branches reached 35558 transactions.
 
In the area of intellectual property rights, the report indicated that 52 new patent applications were issued in May 2017 while 139 patent applications were renewed.
 
In addition, 3903 trademarks have been registered during May, while 17 certificates were issued in the field of copyright and related rights.