The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), announced that it is implementing the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, mSME, coalition project in cooperation with more than 40 federal and local government and semi-government entities as well as the private sector.

The initiative has been designed to create a tightly knit system that supports these companies and facilitates knowledge exchange, innovation, and the expansion of these companies’ scope, in order to enhance their competitiveness. Besides, the project aims to interactively link the coalition with development priorities and emirate’s future initiatives.

Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of ADDED, emphasised that this strategic project is in line with the Abu Dhabi government’s commitment to strengthen the role of startups and mSMEs in economic development by enabling them to contribute effectively to the emirate’s GDP.

Al Shorafa said that the mSMEs sector is an important driver of economic development in the UAE in general and Abu Dhabi in particular. Therefore, the UAE leadership’s vision for the next 50 years attaches great importance to enhancing the sector’s competitiveness and fostering innovation within its ecosystem, he added.

He further explained that the success of the project depends on the extent of interaction among the members of the alliance and their commitment to supporting mergers and acquisitions between companies by ensuring financing, capabilities development, opening of target markets, facilitating business, and driving innovation.

He added that ADDED, along with its strategic partners, is implementing this project that targets mSME-owners after an evaluation of the sector’s current situation. The project aims to develop tightly knit programs by taking advantage of successful global experiences in this field.

Al Shorafa further pointed out that the project also focuses on establishing a clear structure that defines the roles, responsibilities, and objectives of all relevant parties. He stated the need to provide key enablers such as a smart platform to facilitate interaction among concerned parties with regard to the implementation of the required tasks. To achieve this, committees have been formed to oversee various responsibilities and objectives according to the key performance indices and analytical studies that guide the completion of the project.

He said that the project will utilize the results of an extensive survey of mSMEs, which was conducted to create an integrated database from which the project can pursue its goals. He pointed out that ADDED had recently issued a decision defining micro, small, and medium enterprises, MSMEs, based on their capital and the size of workforce.

The survey data provided by the Statistics centre - Abu Dhabi, SCAD, shows that the total number of the MSMEs in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi reached to 54,234 in 2018, of which 33,760 are micro enterprises; 18,945 are small enterprises and 1,529 are medium enterprises. The data indicated that the total production value of these projects amounted to Dhs324.7 billion Al Shorafa added.

The activities of startups, small, medium, and big enterprises include mining; quarrying; manufacturing; supply of electricity, gas and power; medical and pharmaceutical tools; transportation and storage; information and communications technology, ICT, activities; financial and technological activities; insurance activities; modern real-estate activities; professional; scientific and technical activities; administrative services activities; support services; education, in addition to human healthcare activities among others.

In this regard, ADDED has identified tools and means to achieve the mSME coalition project’s objectives. The most important of these are the creation of a digital platform; organisation of workshops; development of entrepreneurship programs that conduct training and qualification courses; and preparation of surveys and analytical studies, in addition to organizing open discussion sessions with project owners and supportive government entities.

The project focuses on supporting mSMEs operating in highly skilled fields, particularly science, healthcare, information technology, innovative solutions as well as patent owners that will be supported by mortgages from leading banks.

ADDED has also formed several committees concerned with achieving the project’s objectives, including a steering committee for decision-making and supportive policy development; an advisory committee comprising a specialized team that supervises the work mechanisms between all the concerned parties; and a cooperation committee comprising leaders and operation teams that supervise the implementation process, in addition to a support office for the ADDED initiative.

 WAM