With The Circle’s first phase now live, the second phase is set to launch by May, introducing additional services with the goal of full digitalization by June.
The Creative Media Authority (CMA) has unveiled The Circle, a new digital interface designed to simplify and accelerate business services for Abu Dhabi’s creative industry. Announced at a first-of-its-kind industry event, the platform will transition over 40 services to a dedicated, paperless portal, optimising processes and reducing application times.
The launch aligns with the UAE’s Year of Community 2025 initiative and reflects CMA’s commitment to fostering a more connected and efficient creative ecosystem. The quarterly Circle event series will introduce evolving themes, such as AI and innovation, to spark fresh opportunities and industry discussions.
Speaking about the portal’s role in uniting the creative sector, Mohamed Dobay, Acting Director General of Creative Media Authority, said: “In the Year of Community, we want to remodel the way in which we support our extensive and talented pool of businesses and freelancers from across wider Abu Dhabi, who together, make up a large part of our growing creative ecosystem. Through regular face-to-face engagements and a transformative digital portal, we will unite as a creative community to forge new, cohesive ways in which we can strengthen our offering for the benefit of all, as we remain true to our vision to become a global content hub and the preferred home of the world’s leading content creators.”
After registering on the portal, businesses and freelancers will be able to access more than 40 services from today, as phase one will include the most frequently applied for services; new business setup and business renewal along with a range of business support services including a request for NOC, company share transfer to a new shareholder, change of director, business name change and business license activity alterations. Specific freelance services include application for a new license, cancellation of a license, medication of a license, reactivation and renewal of a freelance license.
The new interface will not only simplify the processes for each function, with some applications estimated to take around 60 seconds, but will also see shortened waiting times for application results with service level targets for business renewals being cut to just 24 hours via The Circle Digital Portal.
Khalid Khouri, Director of Industry Development at Creative Media Authority, added: “It is with consultation and consistent communication with our valued industry partners that we launched a digital solution to improve the business and freelance support functions on multiple fronts. We have now, a simplified and optimised portal in The Circle which will improve on application times for a variety of different services – making it easier for the creative community to do business in Abu Dhabi.”
With phase one of The Circle portal now complete, and phase two launching by May, the team will also be bringing on more services with a view to digitising as much as possible before the end of June.
