Businessmen seek easier rules to boost economic activities in UAE

Dubai, June 29,2011 (Gulf News): A group of Indian businessmen has called on residency authorities to ease restrictions on people living, working and visiting the country which would help in boosting economic activities.
The businessmen also urged the authorities to reconsider the decision to reduce the period of renewal of residency permits from three to two years.
In what was called "an open heart" meeting between Indian businessmen and the chief of the General Department for Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai (GDRFA), the businessmen said the services of the GDRFA is improving, but they urged the department to offer more facilities to entice expatriates to live and work in the country.
Around 30 businessmen, representing various fields, including gold, construction, real estate, textile, food business, export and import, attended the meeting which was organised at the GDRFA's headquarters on Tuesday. Mohan Valrani, Mahendra Patel, Khushi Khatwani, Lal Ghanwani, Ajay Bhatia, Mohit Khatwani were among those who took part in the meeting.

Major General Mohammad Al Merri, Director-General of GDRFA, said businessmen are important partners of GDRFA.
"We would like to share our thoughts and ideas with you and we would like to listen to your suggestions which would help us improve our services further," he said.
He said Dubai enjoys an important place on the world map and is becoming a major tourism hub and business destination.
Maj Gen Al Merri said that more than 35,000 people come through Dubai airport every day.
New office
"We have more than 21 external centres which offer services to the public and we are opening another centre which will work round the clock to offer all GDRFA services to the public. This centre will be opened soon at Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport," he said.
A number of businessmen at the meeting said that Dubai is striving to improve its services at all levels, but raised their concern about the issue of reducing the period of residency visas to two years instead of three.
They said the authorities should try to reduce the financial and bureaucratic burden on people.
They also urged increasing the residency permit period to ten years and setting aside certain categories of residents to be considered for citizenship.
"Some of the businessmen taking part in this meeting have been living here for 50 to 70 years. The authorities should encourage people to come, invest and work here by securing their stability," one businessman said.
Visit visa exemption
They also said that Indians should be exempted from visit visas and should be dealt with in the same way as the 33 nationalities who do not need visas to enter the UAE.
Another businessman who has been living here for 40 years said that there is a surplus of villas and apartments here and people should be encouraged to come and live here by reducing the cost of living.
The businessmen suggested that there should be a businessmen-friendly immigration policy which will make their work and movement easy and smooth.
They also suggested setting up a committee comprising businessmen and GDRFA officials which will follow up on the issues of the businessmen with immigration and sort it out on a daily basis.
Maj Gen Al Merri said that he will take note of the suggestions and raise these with the concerned authorities.