Sharjah Media City (Shams) is the newest media Free Zone in the UAE. Located in the emirate of Sharjah, Shams was launched in January, 2017 to provide entrepreneurs with a platform to invest and grow their innovative business ideas. One year after its launch, Shams has proved itself to be the fastest growing Free Zone in the UAE – an accomplishment that was rather unexpected owing to the fact that Sharjah is not widely known as a hub for businesses and investment.
Why setup a business in Sharjah?
Although Sharjah is seen as the cultural face of the UAE, it has recently become the ideal destination for entrepreneurs to start their businesses. Besides Free Zones, Sharjah boasts a number of incubators and business accelerators aimed at fostering entrepreneurial projects held in Sharjah.
Why choose Shams?
The advantages of establishing your own company at Shams are many. First of all, there are the benefits that you will find in any Free Zone, such as:
- Full ownership of your business: The major point that attracts entrepreneurs to opt for Free Zones instead of Main Land is ownership. Free Zones allow foreign investors a 100% ownership of their business. Unlike Main Land, Free Zones don’t request expats to partner up with a UAE national to be able to obtain the business license.
- Full profit repatriation: Free Zones allow expats to repatriate all their profits to their home country. This essentially means that entrepreneurs have also the freedom to transfer 100% of their capital to their place of origin.
- 0% Corporate Tax: Sharjah Free Zones do not levy any corporate taxes on the companies registered within the Free Zone.
- 0% Import & Export Tax
- Wide range of business activities: Shams License allows a company to operate its business within Shams Free Zone for a number of activities such as Import and Export, Marketing Consultancies, Event Managements, E-Commerce, Media Services, Media Services, and more.
Shams has its own designated benefits that will make entrepreneurs pick Shams over other Free Zones.
- Cost-effective solutions: As Shams aims to house entrepreneurial talent, it is offering them affordable packages to start their business. Licenses starting from AED 9,050 per year.
- Many types of licenses: Shams has 4 types of licenses, namely: service license, industrial license, trading license and the holding license. You also have the option to broaden the specialization of your company by practicing more than one business activity on the same business license with an additional small amount of charge for each activity.
- Fast and seamless setup process: When you setup your company in Shams, you will not have to go through an arduous registration process. You can get your business license within 3 days at most. With the digitization of the setup system in Shams underway, you will avoid all the effort you’d usually exert on paperwork.
- Register from the comfort of your home: Entrepreneurs wishing to embark on their entrepreneurial journey in the UAE but are not currently present in the country can complete their registration process from them homeland. Given that all the required documents are sent to Shams, physical presence to submit those documents is not an issue any more.
- Office facilities: Entrepreneurs looking for a co-working space to run their business can enjoy the shared desk facility offered by Shams as part of the visa package prepped with the basic requirements and services needed, such as a meeting room, Wi-Fi connection and a printer. For the time being, this facility is the only one available at Shams. However, once the city is built, it will include more office space options, such as, a dedicated desk, dedicated office and shared office. The companies registered within Shams will also have access to Shams’ creative units of showrooms, studios and community areas.
- Flexible visa packages: For the shared desk facility, entrepreneurs can apply for up to 6 visas for their employees. In addition to that, Shams’ visas will allow their holders to sponsor family members and dependents.
- A hub for the media talent: Sharjah Media City (Shams) aims to create an integrative city where businesses from various sectors can interact and grow. However, and as its name suggests, Shams focuses on the media and creative sectors. As we are living in a digital world today, the trend towards media activities is gaining traction. A license is a necessity for media practitioners to legalize their business.
Talk to our Business Setup Advisors if you would like to know more about starting your business in Shams Free Zone.
