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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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Australia Moves to Ban Children Under 16 from Social Media

Australia's government says unchecked social media algorithms are serving up disturbing content to highly impressionable children and teenagers. JOEL SAGET / AFP/File
Australia's government says unchecked social media algorithms are serving up disturbing content to highly impressionable children and teenagers. JOEL SAGET / AFP/File
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Australia Moves to Ban Children Under 16 from Social Media

Australia's government says unchecked social media algorithms are serving up disturbing content to highly impressionable children and teenagers. JOEL SAGET / AFP/File
Australia's government says unchecked social media algorithms are serving up disturbing content to highly impressionable children and teenagers. JOEL SAGET / AFP/File

Australia's prime minister on Thursday vowed to ban children under 16 from social media, saying the pervasive influence of platforms like Facebook and TikTok was "doing real harm to our kids".
The tech giants would be held responsible for enforcing the age limit and face hefty fines if regulators notice young users slipping through the cracks, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Australia is among the vanguard of nations trying to clean up social media, and the proposed age limit would be among the world's strictest measures aimed at children, AFP said.
"This one is for the mums and dads. Social media is doing real harm to kids and I'm calling time on it," Albanese told reporters outside parliament.
The new laws would be presented to state and territory leaders this week, before being introduced to parliament in late November.
Once passed, the tech platforms would be given a one-year grace period to figure out how to implement and enforce the ban.
"The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access," Albanese said, explaining what he dubbed a "world-leading" reform.
"The onus won't be on parents or young people."
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it would "respect any age limitations the government wants to introduce".
But Antigone Davis, Meta's head of safety, said Australia should think carefully about how these restrictions were implemented.
She said poorly drafted laws "risk making ourselves feel better, like we have taken action, but teens and parents will not find themselves in a better place".
Snapchat pointed to a statement from industry body DIGI, which warned that a ban could stop teenagers from accessing "mental health support".
"Swimming has risks, but we don't ban young people from the beach, we teach them to swim between the flags," a DIGI spokeswoman said.
TikTok said it had nothing to add at this stage.
'Falling short'
Once celebrated as a means of staying connected and informed, social media platforms have been tarnished by cyberbullying, the spread of illegal content, and election-meddling claims.
"I get things popping up on my system that I don't want to see. Let alone a vulnerable 14-year-old," Albanese said.
"Young women see images of particular body shapes that have a real impact."
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said social media companies were repeatedly "falling short" in their obligations.
"Social media companies have been put on notice. They need to ensure their practices are made safer," she told reporters at a press briefing alongside Albanese.
Rowland said companies like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Elon Musk's X would face financial penalties if they flouted the laws.
While Rowland did not detail how big these would be, she suggested fines of US$600,000 (Aus $1 million) were well below the mark for companies boasting yearly revenues in the tens of billions of dollars.
Analysts have expressed doubt it would be technically feasible to enforce a strict age ban.
"We already know that present age verification methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent, or risk user privacy," University of Melbourne researcher Toby Murray said earlier this year.
A series of exemptions would be hashed out for platforms such as YouTube that teenagers may need to use for school work or other reasons.
Australia has in recent years ramped up efforts to regulate the tech giants, with mixed success.
A "combating misinformation" bill was introduced earlier this year, outlining sweeping powers to fine tech companies for breaching online safety obligations.
It has also moved to outlaw the sharing of so-called "deepfake" pornography without consent.
But attempts to regulate content on Musk's X -- previously known as Twitter -- have become bogged down in a long-running courtroom battle.
The tech mogul likened the Australian government to "fascists" earlier this year after they announced they would crack down on fake news.
Several other countries have been tightening children's access to social media platforms.
Spain passed a law in June banning social media access to under-16s.
But in both cases the age verification method has yet to be determined.
France passed laws in 2023 that require social media platforms to verify users' ages -- and obtain parental consent if they are younger than 15.
China has restricted access for minors since 2021, with under-14s not allowed to spend more than 40 minutes a day on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Online gaming time for children is also limited in China.