In co-operation with Khalifa Fund to Support and Develop Small- & Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), the Abu Dhabi Businesswomen Council (ADBWC) organized an orientation workshop on “Developing Business Entrepreneurship in Abu Dhabi”.
The event was organized as part of efforts being exerted by the Council to contribute to the development and training of women-nationals, to help them engage in commercial and services business, to provide all essentials for the success of their projects, as well as to ensure the continuity and viability of such projects in a manner that would enhance UAE women’s role in the process of all-out economic development in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
The aforesaid seminar was attended by Mrs. Azza Al Qubaisi, ADBWC Executive Board (EB) Deputy Chairperson, Mrs. Reed Al Shiryani, ADBWC EB Member, along with a large number of businesswomen and female citizens who are planning to start doing a free, self-employed trading and economic activity in the emirate.
Speaking at the seminar, Ms. Mouza Obaid, Senior Director, Khalifa Fund to Support and Develop SMEs Entrepreneurs Development & Training Department, explained that: “The Fund is intended to create a generation of UAE entrepreneurs, to instill and deepen an entrepreneurial culture amongst their circles, as well as to reinforce the crystallization of an SMEs sector in unison with the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030”.
In order to achieve this objective, a number of initiatives has been launched to inculcate and boost values of entrepreneurship and innovation in young people by means of including them into academic curricula and books at schools, universities, awareness campaigns, creativity and originality programmes plus schemes to infix entrepreneurial skills at schools.
Khalifa Fund’s training programmes include those of Intilaqa (Arabic for “Advance” or “Breakthrough”), Khutwah (Arabic for “Step”) Training Programme and other ones for micro-businesses. The Fund has also launched an initiative peculiar to highly influential entrepreneurs to attract, develop and help them set up successful value-added projects in the UAE.
One of the social programmes being executed by the Fund is that of Soughah (Arabic for “Creation and Formulation”), which is an integrated initiative designed to maintain the local heritage through fostering entrepreneurial skills of UAE craftsmen and women, upgrading the products and ultimately creating effectively feasible networks, turning such craftsmen and women into entrepreneurs and creating such a rewarding source of income that would be their own business activity.
Ms. Obaid also presented phases and tiers of support being provided by the Fund to UAE nationals; namely, training and counselling services, pre-finance and pre-assessment support, recommendations and encashment of finance, in addition to pre- and post-foundation and -incorporation support. She also introduced the most important achievements made by the Fund throughout the past period at the fore of which was organizing 139 training courses, training 2027 UAE nationals and approving providing finance to 295 projects. Similarly, 39 deals worth 114-million dollars were struck under the umbrella of Khalifa Fund.
Financing programmes provided by the Fund to UAE nationals include those of Khutwah Micro-Enterprises in which concentration is on crafts and handicrafts and relevant financing amounts to 250,000 dirhams, Bidayah (Arabic for “Start-up or Beginning”) for setting up new projects spanning all investment sectors and associated financing reaches 3 million dirhams, Ziyadah (Arabic for “Increase or Growth”) which helps support existing successful projects covering different sectors and related financing comes to 5 million dirhams, Tassnee (Arabic for “Manufacturing/Industrialization”) which provides a maximum of 10-million-dirham financing to industrial projects in harmony with investment and development trends involved in the Abu Dhabi Economic Strategy.
An analytical presentation was also introduced on favourable opportunities for SMEs in Abu Dhabi and priority sectors; namely, those of engineering, construction, tourism, IT, foodstuff, mineral, and plastic industries.