The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) Youth Council, in cooperation with the Federal Youth Authority (FYA), held three youth circles on Tax Culture to Support Small and Medium Enterprises as part of the Council’s initiatives to raise tax awareness and facilitate tax compliance through direct engagement with youth business.

More than 100 representatives of small and medium enterprises participated in the discussions at youth centres in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ajman.

The sessions were attended by Federal Tax Authority Director General,  Khalid Ali Al Bustani, Federal Youth Authority Director General, Saeed Al Nazari, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) Undersecretary, Rashid Al Balooshi, and the Mohammed bin Rashid Establishment for Small and Medium Enterprise Development Executive Vice President, Saeed Al Marri, alongside a number of federal and local authority officials.

The youth circles, moderated by Eissa Ibrahim Al Raeesi, an FTA Tax Enforcement Specialist, dealt with a set of main themes, including the services provided by the authority, its future directions, enhancing the youth tax culture in the SME sector and the most prominent challenges facing young people at SMEs and their perceptions of facing and overcoming these challenges.

The panels also engaged participants on their innovative ideas, suggestions and opinions for the development and modernization of processes carried out by the authority, to continuously improve services and procedures.

Youth engagement is one of the Authority’s most important goals for drawing a more advanced and pioneering future for the UAE tax sector.

Khalid Al Bustani said: “The holding of these youth circles came as part of the Authority’s educational and awareness plan, with the aim of supporting UAE youth in the SME sector and enabling them to achieve tax self-compliance smoothly and easily, during which focus was placed on listening to their opinions, suggestions and observations on the procedures and services provided to develop and modernise the Authority’s services”.

He added: “The Authority’s approach of direct engagement with the youth in the business sector by interacting with their opinions and responding to them comes within the framework of the government directives of youth empowerment and activate their role in various sectors, including the economic sector, for the next fifty years, by adopting and supporting the youth’s creative ideas to build the nation’s future, and achieving sustainable growth for the national economy.”

He emphasised that the FTA aims, through these engagements, to spread tax awareness, help businesses overcome challenges, and provide information, through the specialized teams at the Authority due to the increased number of inquiries from the SME sector.

The Authority has placed SMEs, which represent a large segment of companies in the UAE that are of strategic importance, amongst its priorities for awareness increase over the past and current years, with a majority of awareness panels focusing on the SME sector.

Trend Industries: Trend Industries FZC, a world-class company and front-runner partnering with clients in specialised fabrication, has announced plans to invest Dhs25 million in the construction of a new production facility in the Hamriyah Free Zone.

According to the company’s new expansion strategy, Trend Industries will scale up its production capacity from 3,600 tonnes per year to 8,400 tonnes per year, further strengthening Sharjah’s position as a global leader in steel fabrication.

This was announced during a ceremony held recently to sign a lease agreement between Hamriyah Free Zone Authority (HFZA) and Trend Industries.

Saud Salim Al Mazrouei, Director of the Hamriyah Free Zone Authority, and Neeraj K Sharma, CEO of Trend Industries, signed the partnership agreement in the presence of several senior officials from both entities. Under the agreement, the steel fabrication company will lease 323,000 square feet of land to build its new factory.

Accompanied by several HFZA officials, Al Mazrouei toured Trend Industries’ existing facility, which offers a comprehensive suite of fabrication and manufacturing services that include a complete portfolio of managed solutions.

In addition to storage tanks, air receiver tanks, pressure vessels, heavy structure fabrication and installation, chiller plant skids, silos, skids for pressure silos, the facility also produces chemical skid fabrication, piping systems, crane and escalator beams, flatbed and container trailers, crane-mounted trailers for cargo bodies and blocks, tipper/water/diesel tank trailers, cesspit tanks, and frame trailers, among many more.

Al Mazrouei was briefed on the production processes and mechanisms adopted under the latest international standards. The production plant was founded in 2006 and employs some 134 personnel, including technicians.

Al Mazrouei expressed his appreciation for Trend Industries’ decision and emphasised that HFZA would continue to promote investments in heavy industries, including steel fabrication, by offering a welcoming business environment and cutting-edge infrastructure that perfectly suits these industries and meets their needs. He added that HFZA’s deep water port and inner harbour facilitate importing and exporting goods and raw materials.