FROM LEFT: Dany Lopez, Non Executive Director & Adviser, Innovative Finance; Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, CEO of Qatar Development Bank (QDB); Yousuf Mohamed Al Jaida, Chief Executive officer, QFC; Louis Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, UK Export Finance; and
The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are critical for job creation and creating a dynamic economy. An estimated 96 percent of registered companies in the entire Mena region are classified as small and medium enterprises and they contribute 50 percent of the region’s workforce, Yousuf Mohamed Al Jaida, Chief Executive officer, QFC has said.
Participating in a panel discussion on “SMEs and Financial Services Sector” hosted on the sidelines of “Qatar-UK Financial Services Event” yesterday, the QFC CEO said of the total 750 firms registered under QFC, all the 700 companies are can be classified as SMEs. “SMEs are crucial part of Qatar’s growth story and it will continue to do so..” he said.
However, the regional statistics show that the SMEs are facing challenges. The biggest impediment is lack of access to finance. Another challenge is that as the GCC economies are heavily dependent on natural resources. “We have lot of public investments happening which tends to crowd out SMEs from the scene. This is another challenge we have to deal with in the GCC,” Al Jaida said.
Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, CEO of Qatar Development Bank (QDB) said there are always opportunities for SMEs, both in local and international market. He said the massive infrastructure boom Qatar has been witnessing over the past few years offered great opportunities for SMEs. QDB has identified different potential sectors. “We have just launched sports and incubation program. We are also providing training and support to SMEs in various sectors, the required funding and local procumbent opportunities through the government…. At the same time QDB helps SMEs to gain access to international market.”
Al Khalifa said that QDB has so far seen at least 1,500 small and medium enterprises going international. In Qatar, QDB supported almost 8500 SMEs to obtain local procurement opportunities. The law enacted in 2015 allows the SMEs to bid for government contract without actually providing bid bonds/performance bonds, but through a letter of guarantee from QDB, he said.
The Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) soon-to-be-launched platform will create a proper foundation for the SMEs to be incubated and accelerated not only to serve Qatari market, but international as well, he added, the QDB CEO added.
Gavin Holland, Partner, Anthemis Group; and Louis Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, UK Export Finance also participated in the discussion.
Dany Lopez, Non Executive Director & Adviser, Innovative Finance was the moderator.
