Dubai Healthcare City cuts fees to attract investment

Dubai Healthcare City has reduced several fees for its healthcare, commercial, research and education offerings to attract more investment, the freezone’s governing body DHCA has said.

Operating permit fees for issuance and renewal for close to 150 clinical practices – mainly hospitals and clinics, have been reduced, a statement said.

The fees for inpatient and outpatient facilities have been cut by up to 30 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.

Whereas diagnostic centres and medical laboratories will receive a reduction of up to 32 per cent in permit fees.

Community pharmacy and non-diagnostic medical laboratories will also see a cut in fees.

The DHCA has also waived the operating permit fees for over 240 non-clinical entities across the retail and hospitality sectors, as well as consultancies and professional training centres, the statement said.

Meanwhile facilities in Healthcare City conducting research and/or education as their core services can avail up to 67 per cent fee reduction when applying and/or renewing their permits.

Those applying for or renewing research permits – in addition to their core services, will also see the fee cut by up to 45 per cent. The fees for submission and ethics review for sponsored interventional studies have also been reduced by 24 per cent.

Ramadan AlBlooshi, chief regulatory officer, DHCA, said, “As part of the directives of the UAE’s leadership, fee waivers and reductions have been made to attract investors to the free zone.”

Dubai has announced several initiatives to reduce the cost of doing business in the emirate and encourage further investment.

Earlier this month, a second package of initiatives under the emirate’s economic incentive package was launched by Dubai’s Department of Finance.

They cover services to support SMEs and boost public-private partnerships in the emirate.

Read: Dubai reveals five new initiatives to support and cut costs for SMEs