Licensable activity
Manufacturing & industrial
Transforming materials into products. An industrial licence is a different instrument from a commercial one: it presumes premises, plant and a production process, and it is issued on that basis.
Classification
How it is coded.
UAE activity lists derive from ISIC Revision 4, the United Nations industrial classification. Each emirate's economic department and each free zone then extends that base with its own numbering, so the same activity carries a different code in Dubai than it does in Sharjah or inside DMCC.
- ISIC Rev. 4
- Section C — Manufacturing (divisions 10–33)
- Licence category
- Industrial
- Regulator
- Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology
Approvals beyond the licence
- Industrial registration
- MoIAT, in addition to the emirate or free zone licence.
- Environmental permit
- Municipality or the emirate environment agency, graded by process and emissions.
- Civil defence
- Fire and safety approval for the facility, before occupancy.
- Product-specific
- Food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic production each carry their own regulator on top.
In practice
There is no virtual route to an industrial licence — it requires real space, which is why the industrial zones cluster where land is cheap: KEZAD, Hamriyah, RAKEZ, Dubai Industrial City. In-Country Value certification also matters here more than anywhere else, because it affects who wins government and semi-government supply contracts.
Coverage
Where it can be licensed.
Of the 40 licensing authorities across the UAE, 14 issue licences covering this activity, spread across 7 of the seven emirates.