Dubai: Dubai Municipality will not increase the service fees for traders, Dawood Al Hajiri, director-general of the municipality, said after meeting with the traders from different categories in the city on Wednesday.

The “Dubai Municipality Forum with Traders” was held in response to the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, issued to the government departments and institutions in Dubai to reduce the cost of business and to stimulate investors and companies.

Listening to the traders’ comments on the charges for services and fees imposed by the municipality, Al Hajiri stressed the municipality would not increase their service fees under the decree issued by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad.

Al Hajiri said the directives of Shaikh Mohammad would contribute to creating an environment conducive to economic growth in line with the emirate’s economic development goals.

He said the government has directed officials to make customers of all categories happy by providing all services that contribute to achieving the best experiences for the customers and achieve a qualitative leap in the efficiency of the services and raise them to international standards that are worthy of the reputation of the country and the emirate.

“The UAE is moving from an important stage to a new era of growth and prosperity, not to mention the importance that this decision represents for the historical embrace of Expo 2020, which means that the emirate is preparing to receive new waves of foreign investment, which in turn require a stable and attractive economic environment that will help it to develop its long-term plans,” pointed out Al Hajiri.

He said Dubai Municipality has initiated this forum to chalk out initiatives aimed at simplifying business procedures, reducing their costs and harnessing all possibilities to enhance investments in the areas related to the municipality’s activities.

It will ensure that the city of Dubai has an encouraging and promising environment for investors to keep abreast of all changes and conditions to achieve sustainable economic growth.

The meeting brought together the traders of Al Ras Market, Gold Souq and foodstuff merchants.

It will be followed by more meetings to cover the remaining categories of traders in Dubai.

Al Hajiri assured all traders that the municipality will list all the observations received during this meeting regarding the municipality’s work and matters related to other government bodies and will convey them to the departments concerned as part of the cooperation and communication between these bodies for the benefit of the country and to achieve the directives of the government in this regard.

Following the comments received from traders, Al Hajiri issued instructions in some subjects related to the municipality’s work to implement them quickly, alleviating the burden on traders.

The civic chief directed officials to establish some market facilities as demanded by traders based on the comments received from customers and visitors to the market and also to follow up on their comments and complaints.