More than 200 million jobs can be created out of Small and Medium-seized Enterprises (SMEs) in the Gulf region as well as the wider Arab world in the next 20 years, top officials said at the Entrepreneurship Forum in the capital. “Youth unemployment can be alleviated through the development of entrepreneurship. SMEs are significant to the region’s economy and in providing solutions to the wider socio-economic issues, including the need to create over 200 million jobs in the next 20 years just to stop the rate of unemployment from increasing,” Badr Jafar, chief executive officer of Crescent Enterprises and managing director of the Crescent Group, said. “The ultimate goal is that we create employers, not just employees. The aim is to create a new generation of Emirati entrepreneurs by instilling the culture of investment among them and support SMEs through a series of programmes and services,” he added. Hosted by the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, the two-day forum, which has started on Tuesday and ended on Wednesday, has focused on Emirati stories of entrepreneurial success at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec). An agreement between the Lulu Hypermarket and Khalifa Fund was signed on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Entrepreneurship forum to better market the Fund’s products in the market.
The special privileges include exemptions on registration fees for suppliers in the first year, shorter collection times and discounts up to 50 per cent on the supply fee at Lulu Hypermarket during the year. “This agreement will open up limitless possibilities for numerous projects supported by Khalifa Fund, especially those in the retail sector and in agriculture products such as fruits and vegetables and SMEs in the food industry, sweets, perfumes and accessories,” Abdullah Saeed Al Darmaki, CEO of Khalifa Fund, said. The forum has also seen the participation of Chad Hurley, co-founder of the social networking site YouTube. “I am excited to come to Abu Dhabi for the first time and share my experience in creating new standards in technology. The UAE is and the region are full of opportunities to bring people together,” he said.
