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2,000 Firms from 106 Countries Start Operations at Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone

2,000 Firms from 106 Countries Start Operations at Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone
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2,000 Firms from 106 Countries Start Operations at Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone

2,000 Firms from 106 Countries Start Operations at Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone

Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone (SPC Free Zone) has announced that in 2021, it witnessed impressive growth in the number of new company registrations with a total of 2,000 new companies from across 106 countries, mainly from the UK, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Lebanon, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.

Stakeholders in the education and publishing sectors, and creative sector players such as translation agencies and linguistic editing offices, have leveraged SPC Free Zone’s nurturing and supportive environment and advanced infrastructure to conduct business and expand operations in the region in 2021, it said.

According to WAM, the number of newly registered publishing companies and allied businesses have risen over the previous year. This reflects the emirate’s ongoing efforts to attract investments in diverse economic sectors, including creative industries, through the free zone’s portfolio of advanced services and state-of-the-art facilities that cater to investors’ needs.

The launch of several initiatives to attract investors and cultural and academic entities to set base in the emirate has seen SPC Free Zone successfully strengthen its leading position as a driver of economic growth and diversification and become a haven for entrepreneurs across a spectrum of creative industries.

Covering an area of 40,000 square meters, SPC provides 600 furnished offices for publishing entrepreneurs and 6,000 square meters of space for investors planning to create their own spaces. It also houses more than 20 conference rooms, stores, service facilities, and a public administration branch of the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship to speed up investor visa processing.

Open 24/7, SPC Free Zone offers investors a wide range of benefits, including 100 percent foreign ownership for all nationalities, 100 percent repatriation of capital, 100 percent exemption from personal income tax, corporate tax, import and export tax, as well as access to all other services at cost-effective rates, including manpower, energy, living, printing, and logistics.

Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone was awarded the Quality Management System Certificate (ISO 9001:2015) in 2021 to recognize its excellence as a business incubator and for providing a supportive environment for investors and start-ups in the publishing and allied sectors.

In 2021, SPC Free Zone signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mashreq Bank to offer priority access to various financial and banking services to investors and entrepreneurs in different market sectors.

Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, Chairman of the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), said that under the directives of Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, the emirate has emerged as a leading and pioneering city that supports investments in the creative sector and provides world-class infrastructure for entrepreneurs.

He added, "The achievements of Sharjah in the publishing sector are paving the way for the promotion of creativity and innovation and enhancing the emirate’s position as a nurturing economic ecosystem that invests in knowledge and culture and attracts publishers and bookmakers to the emirate to set up a business and expand to international markets."

Director of Sharjah Publishing City Free Zone (SPC Free Zone) Salim Omar Salim noted that the increasing number of investors wanting to start their business in the free zone is a testament to Sharjah’s status as a leading knowledge capital of the world and its successful efforts in creating an inclusive ecosystem for regional and international publishers.

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Storm Dumps Record Rain in Northern California, While US Northeast Deals with Winter Storms

A pedestrian walks along a flooded street during a storm Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A pedestrian walks along a flooded street during a storm Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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Storm Dumps Record Rain in Northern California, While US Northeast Deals with Winter Storms

A pedestrian walks along a flooded street during a storm Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A pedestrian walks along a flooded street during a storm Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A major storm dropped more snow and record rain in California, causing small landslides and flooding some streets, while on the opposite side of the country blizzard or winter storm warnings were in effect Saturday for areas spanning from the Northeast to central Appalachia.
The storm on the West Coast arrived in the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, killing two people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands, mostly in the Seattle area, before its strong winds moved through Northern California, The Associated Press reported.
Santa Rosa, California, saw its wettest three-day period on record with about 12.5 inches (32 centimeters) of rain falling by Friday evening, according to the National Weather Service in the Bay Area.
Flooding closed part of scenic Highway 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, in Mendocino County and there was no estimate for when it would reopen, according to the California Department of Transportation.
On the East Coast, another storm brought much-needed rain to New York and New Jersey, where rare wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. Parts of West Virginia were under a blizzard warning through Saturday morning, with up to 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow and high winds making travel treacherous.
As residents in the Seattle area headed into the weekend, more than 112,000 people were still without power from this season’s strongest atmospheric river — a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows through the sky over land. Crews worked to clear streets of downed lines, branches and other debris, while cities opened warming centers so people heading into their fourth day without power could get warm food and plug in their cellphones and other devices.
Gale warnings were issued off Washington, Oregon and California, and high wind warnings were in effect across parts of Northern California and Oregon. There were winter storm warnings for parts of the California Cascades and the Sierra Nevada.
Forecasters predicted that both coasts would begin to see a reprieve from the storms as the system in the northeast moves into eastern Canada and the one in the West heads south.
By Friday night, some relief was already being seen in California, where the sheriff’s office in Humboldt County downgraded evacuation orders to warnings for people near the Eel River after forecasters said the waterway would see moderate but not major flooding.
The system roared ashore on the West Coast on Tuesday as a “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly. It unleashed fierce winds that toppled trees onto roads, vehicles and homes.
Debra Campbell said she was sitting in the dark with a flashlight that night, unable to sleep as strong winds lashed her house in Crescent City, California. With a massive boom, a 150-foot (46-meter) tree came crashing down on her home and car.
“It was just so incredibly frightening,” AP quoted Campbell as saying. “Once I realized it wasn’t going to come through the ceiling where I was at, I was able to grab my car keys and my purse. ... And I open the front door and it’s just solid tree.”
In the Northeast, which has been hit by drought, more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain was expected by Saturday morning north of New York City, with snow mixed in at higher elevations.
Despite the mess, the precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions in a state that has seen an exceptionally dry fall.
“It’s not going to be a drought buster, but it’s definitely going to help when all this melts,” said Bryan Greenblatt, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Binghamton, New York.
Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains, prompting a raft of school closures. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches (43 centimeters), with lesser accumulations in valley cities like Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. More than 85,000 customers in 10 counties lost power, and the state transportation department imposed speed restrictions on some highways.