Dubai Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, has emphasised the importance of small and medium enterprises in the growth of the UAE economy.
“The Ministry of Economy is concerned seriously with following this sector which has witnessed a huge leap on the local federal levels and it will enhance the competitiveness of the state in different fields,” Al Mansouri said at the third UAE Conference on SMEs.
“Up to 94 per cent of UAE companies are SMEs and their contribution makes up 6 per cent of the economy. Though we are facing a lot of challenges we cannot build a very solid base for small and medium enterprises unless we take very important positions and mergers on the level of federal and legal,” Al Mansouri said.
“Following the First UAE Symposium on SME in 2009, the Ministry of Economy started its extensive efforts to work on the SME law and definition in accordance with the Prime Minister’s Office direction for the strategic priority on SMEs and today I am pleased to announce that the ministry has finished the definition and it will go through the practical stage very soon.”
According to Al Mansouri, the most important process for SMEs is licensing. The second is reducing the establishing cost. The government recently announced an MoU with South Korea, Germany and Italy to develop the local SME industry.
