{"id":40040,"date":"2025-02-13T12:23:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T09:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/?p=40040"},"modified":"2025-02-13T13:10:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T10:10:07","slug":"uae-minister-highlights-role-of-smes-in-economic-growth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/2025\/02\/uae-minister-highlights-role-of-smes-in-economic-growth-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0UAE Minister Highlights Role of SMEs in Economic Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Alia Al Mazrouei: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>&#8220;Entrepreneurship is a key pillar of the UAE&#8217;s economic diversification and global competitiveness.&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>16 government entities support the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UAE.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>UAE ranks 17th globally as a hub for unicorn startups.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0Alia bint Abdullah Al Mazrouei, UAE Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, emphasized the critical role of startups and SMEs in driving economic diversification during a panel discussion at the World Government Summit 2025 in Dubai.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The session, titled &#8220;How Entrepreneurship Fuels Economic Growth and Prosperity,&#8221; featured Hon.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Manoa Kamikamica, Fiji\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Cooperatives, SMEs, and Communications.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Discussions focused on:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The role of SMEs in economic expansion and job creation.<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Policies and initiatives to enhance startup competitiveness.<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The impact of digital tools, AI, and automation on entrepreneurship.<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The importance of attracting and scaling unicorn startups.<\/li>\n<li dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Entrepreneurship: A Strategic Pillar for Economic Growth<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">Alia Al Mazrouei stated:&#8221;The entrepreneurship and SME sector is a strategic pillar of the UAE&#8217;s vision to become one of the world&#8217;s top economies by the next decade. SMEs already contribute 63.5% of the UAE&#8217;s non-oil GDP.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">She highlighted the UAE\u2019s integrated national entrepreneurship framework, which fosters innovation, supports Emirati entrepreneurs, and enhances the global competitiveness of startups.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The UAE currently hosts over 50 government and private business incubators and accelerators.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The Minister outlined several initiatives launched in November 2024 to boost the UAE\u2019s startup ecosystem: &#8220;Riyada Fund&#8221; \u2013 A AED 300 million fund providing financial support, mentorship, and industry networking opportunities for Emirati-led startups.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">&#8220;UAE Entrepreneurship Council&#8221; \u2013 A national body aligning government efforts to strengthen SMEs.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">&#8220;100 Companies of the Future&#8221; &amp; &#8220;Investopia&#8221; \u2013 Programs fostering innovation-driven startups in sustainable and emerging sectors.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">She also highlighted the government&#8217;s goal of increasing SME participation in public sector contracts to 10%.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>UAE: A Thriving Hub for Unicorn Startups<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0Alia Al Mazrouei emphasized the UAE&#8217;s strong position as a global startup hub, ranking 17th worldwide for unicorn startups.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">&#8220;The UAE has become a launchpad for billion-dollar startups. Companies like Careem, SWVL, and Dubizzle originated in our ecosystem, and today, the country is home to 11 unicorns valued at over $1 billion each.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\">The Minister also stressed the role of AI and digital transformation in accelerating SME success, positioning the UAE as a global leader in AI-driven innovation and entrepreneurship\u0631<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Alia bint Abdullah Al Mazrouei, UAE Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, emphasized the critical role of startups and SMEs in driving economic diversification during a panel discussion at the World Government Summit 2025 in Dubai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":40021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7118,1772],"tags":[3003,7125,7127],"class_list":["post-40040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wgs","category-startups","tag-alia-al-mazrouei","tag-manoa-kamikamica","tag-the-world-government-summit-2025"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entarabi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}