Ghassan Al-Sulaiman, the Governor of the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises in Saudi Arabia, highlighted the role of Saudi women in the economic development by saying that almost 40% of the startups launched in 2016 belonged to women.
Since its inception, the General Authority for SMEs has been working hard in two directions – to support small businesses when they struggle and to start over where the others already stopped trying. In order to achieve its first goal, the authority managed to identify the main weaknesses among local small enterprises and conducted numerous workshops for over 2,000 business to help them cope with the difficulties.
Al-Sulaiman confirmed Saudi Arabia needed a strong startup ecosystem to complement the activities of larger corporations and to enter new sectors of innovation such as mining, sports, and tourism. The government body is now working on a strategy for the SME sector development. A great part of it would concern the SME’s funding mechanism, added Al-Sulaiman. At the moment his team is discussing several proposals, and the final strategy will be submitted for approval to the Council of Economic Development Affairs and the Cabinet within the next month and a half.
For the Minister of Commerce and Investment, Majid Al-Qasabi, the SMEs are an integral part of the Saudi’s Vision 2030 and an engine for economic growth. The Ministry of Commerce estimated that the SME sector would bring between 500,000 to 700,000 job opportunities by 2030, added Al-Qasabi.
The Ministry of Commerce has also been working hard to provide adequate legal framework regulating the small businesses in a way to encourage them to invest and expand their activities. In addition to that, the government is also amending the current procurement system to ensure the SMEs participation in it. Next to that, the Kingdom is also changing the bankruptcy, commercial mortgage, and commercial franchise systems to give a fresh breath to the SMEs and allow them to expand their activities in the country. Furthermore, Al-Qasabi confirmed the government’s support to decrease the number of paperwork required for SMEs. A special committee, called Tayseer would fight the bureaucracy, said the Minister.