Forum Programme

Day One – Tuesday 23 October
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7:00 Registration and Coffee

7:45 Opening Remarks

  • Dr. Hamed H. Al Dhahab
    Director General
    Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Oman

8: 00 Keynote Panel 1: Enhancing the Competitiveness of SMEs in the Global
         Economy: Strategies & Policies

Gulf governments recognise the importance of SMEs and their contribution to economic growth, employment and development. Globalisation and technological change bring new opportunities for the region's SMEs to enter international markets and to reduce business costs. However, there are competitive challenges and risks associated with this. Panel 1 aims to increase the understanding of issues and policies related to Gulf SME competitiveness in the global economy. In particular, with regard to innovation and e-commerce. The Panel will also propose concrete and feasible initiatives through which the globalisation of Gulf SMEs may be facilitated.

  • Marie-Florence Estimé
    OECD Working Party on SMEs
    Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
    The Bologna Charter on SME Policies:
    An OECD Perspective

  • Jalal Bibi & Paul Spence
    Partners
    Accenture
    Entrepreneurship & SMEs: What are the Key Imperatives & Core Elements?

9:00 - 9:30   Question & Answer Session

9:30   Morning Coffee & Discussion Break

10:00 Panel 2: Financing Gulf Scale-Ups & Start-Ups:  Pitfalls & Remedies

A thriving SME sector is crucial to the growth and development of Gulf economies. However, financial institutions often avoid SMEs, sensing that the transaction costs of financing them will be excessively high. What SMEs need is not to be left without access to capital, but approached in a new model that combines early-stage equity investment and performance enhancing technical and managerial assistance. Indeed, survey after survey reveals that access to capital is what most SME managers and owners consider the biggest obstacle. Yet too little is known about how to overcome it in a comprehensive and sustainable way. Panel 2 will help identify and share what does and doesn't work in financing SMEs, either directly through their own operations or through local financial intermediaries.
  • Ahmed Samerai
    Investment Development Manager
    DAMAC Group
    Survive or Not, How will High-Tech Arab SMEs Raise Equity Capital?
  • Raghavan Murthy
     General Manager
     United Finance Company
     Financing SMEs: Concerns, Corrections and Progress Road Map
     
  • T.V. Alaga Raja
    CEO
    Industrial Bank of Oman
    A Practical Approach to Planning and Financing Medium-sized Projects
      
  • Sulaiman Al-Mazroui
    The Executive Member of the Supreme Committee
    Emirates International Bank
    Al Tomooh: The Small National Business Finance Scheme
  • Sulaiman M. Al Harthy
    General Manager
    Fund for Development of Youth Projects
    Equity Financing SMEs

12:30 ­ 1:00 Question & Answer Session

1:00 ­ 2:15 Lunch: Special Presentation by Talal Thabet, Sales Manager, Arabian Business.com

2:15 - Panel 3: SME Case Studies: Food for Thought

Setting up a business is not generally seen as a natural career option, there is a high degree of risk aversion, and neither school nor university teach enterprise as a core skill. As a result, the rate of new business formation in the Gulf is low. Each organisation represented on Panel 3 has undertaken a number of high-profile initiatives to promote the culture of enterprise and entrepreneurship and to open-up the concept of self-employment to a much wider audience.    
  • Khaldoun Hajhassan
    Acting CEO and Chief Operating Officer
    Sheikh Khalifa SMEs
    SMEs: The Abu Dhabi Story
     
  • Robert-Jan Smits
    Head, SME Research Unit
    European Commission
    SMEs and Innovation: the RTD Programmes of the European Union
  • Dr. Peter Eident
    Project Manager, Training
    The UAE Offsets Group
    The Sheikh Khalifa SME Project: Lessons Learnt
  • Salim Al-Miskry
    Training Manager
    Intilaaqah Oman
    Developing and Encouraging SME Start-ups:
    An Omani Perspective
  • Adel Mohammed Al Roumi
    Vice President and Managing Director
    Kuwait Small Projects Development Company
    Small Business Projects: The Kuwait Experience

4:45 ­ 5:15 Question & Answer Session

7:45 ­ Gala Dinner: Crowne Plaza Hotel,   Hosted by Ahmed Al Dheeb,
              Executive President, Public Establishments for Industrial Estates
 

Forum Programme

Day Two – Wednesday 24 October
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8:00 ­ Panel 4: E-readiness & Gulf SMEs

The strategic benefits of e-business to Gulf-based SMEs are becoming increasingly clear. The region's firms are going online to find partners, locate suppliers, identify markets, liaise with consultants, obtain industry knowledge, secure financing, lower costs and clinch deals. In brief, the Internet and other technologies are becoming not merely alternate distribution channels, they are fundamentally changing the way business is done globally. In Panels 4 and 5, IT and e-business experts will explore Internet and technology issues pertinent to the region's Scale-Ups and Start-Ups.  

  • Ashok Sharma
    SME Business, Gulf and Eastern Mediterranean
    Microsoft
    SMEs in the Internet Age

  • Mohammed Al Toki
    Head Business Solution
    Petroleum Development Oman(PDO)

  • Said Al Kindy
    Head Business Development
    Petroleum Development Oman

  • Eyhab Al Haji
    eBusiness Strategist
    Petroleum Development Oman

    ( PDO's Role in Stimulating and Developing Local SME's Across the Digital Divide )

  • Hafsa Al Ulama
    Co-founder
    Dubai Ideas Oasis
    E-Transformation: Opportunities for SMEs

  • H.H. Sheikh Khalid bin Zayed Al-Nahyan
    Managing Director
    Vertscape
    Delivering E-Business to SMEs: Next Generation Distributed Web Services

  • Alan Livingston
    CEO
    Oman TradaNet LLC
    E-commerce: Does it Apply to SMEs or is it the Preserve of Large Corporates?

10:00 Morning Coffee & Discussion Break

10:30 ­ Panel 5: Smart SMEs in the X-economy

  • Imad Benharouga
    CEO & Co-founder
    Planetarabia.com
    Riding the internet startup Roller Coaster: How a College Hobby Turned into a Real Business 

  • Ayman Abousseif
    Marketing Director, Middle East and Africa
    Oracle
    Turning Ideas Into Business with Oracle Venture Network

  • Tarek Al Mousa & Mufeed Abdal
    General Manager, Operations & Marketing Manager
    NREC
    The Freedom Flexibility Law: An Analysis of Light Industries on
    Kuwait Free Trade Zone

  • Haroon Moolla
    Head, HP Garage Program
    Hewlett Packard
    HP Garage Program: Kick starting SMEs

  • Adel Lootah
    Commercial Director
    Dubai Internet City
    Business Opportunities for SMEs in DIC

  • Marc Van der Ven
    Managing Director
    ACCPAC Middle East, FZ-LLC
    How to Address Accounting and E-business Needs for Growing SMEs in the Middle East?

1:30 ­ 2:00 Question & Answer Session

2:00 ­ 3:00 Lunch: Special Presentation by Alex Hawary,
                          Middle East Director, Arabies Trends

3:00 ­  Panel 6: - Benchmarking & Improving Management Skills in SMEs

Panel 6 will analyse the skill development needs of managers working in Gulf SMEs. Presenters will address how the region must raise skill levels if its businesses are to compete successfully in their chosen market places.
  • Rabea Ataya Bayt
    CEO
    Bayt.com
    Electronic Recruiting: The key to SME success

  • Khalid Al Moayed
    Chairman
    A.K. Al Moayed Group
    SME Management: Today's Challenges

  • Ahmed Al Dheeb
    Executive President
    Public Establishments for Industrial Estates
    IT Park Development in Oman

  • Shawqi Sajwani
    Manager, Quality Assurance & CI
    Dubai Aluminium
    Developing Skills & Managerial Professionalism in SMEs:
    A View from Dubai

5:00 ­ 5:30 Question & Answer Session

5: 30 ­  Panel 7: Legal Challenges Facing Gulf SMEs

A variety of obstacles hinder Gulf SMEs, difficult taxation, regulatory and trade climates, lack of legal infrastructure and enforcement and anti-competitive behaviour. Efforts to remove these barriers must be placed higher up the agenda of policy reform efforts.  Such efforts must be based on careful analysis of the specific business environment issues that are most important and can be realistically targeted for early attention, such as legal and regulatory reform and streamlined bureaucracy.  The final Panel will focus exclusively on the legal and regulatory issues facing today's Gulf SMEs.
  • Mark Hill
    Partner
    Clyde & Co
    Getting the Rights Right - Words of Advice for SMEs from a Friendly Intellectual Property Lawyer
  • Andrew Rae
    Senior Solicitor
    Trowers & Hamlins
    Corporate Governance and SMEs
  • Said Al-Shahry & Fayyaz Mahmood
    Proprietor & Barrister
    Said Al-Shahry Law Office
    Legal Requirements for SMEs: Doing the Business

7:00 ­ 7:30 Question & Answer Session

7:30  The Gulf SME Declaration: Where from Here?  

  • H.H. Sheikh Khalid Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan
    Managing Director
    Vertscape
  • H.E. Engineer Ali M. Al Sunaidi
    Under Secretary
    Ministry of Commerce and Industry
  • Haroon Moolla
    Head, HP Garage Program
    Hewlett Packard 
  • Khalid Al Moayed
    Chairman
    A.K. Al Moayed Group
  • Imad Benharouga
    CEO & Co-founder
    Planetarabia.com
  • Marie-Florence Estimé
    OECD Working Party on SMEs
    OECD
  • Hafsa Al Ulama
    Co-founder
    Dubai Ideas Oasis