Dubai SME joins hands with Majid Al Futtaim Ventures

Dubai SME, the agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED), Government of Dubai, entrusted with the development of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, has signed a partnership agreement with MAF ORIX Finance to offer benefits to the top 100 SMEs.

HE Abdul Baset, Chief Executive of Dubai SME, expressed his gratitude to MAF ORIX Finance for their commitment and support of this critical initiative to champion the SME sector. He said “Top Finance companies such as MAF Orix Finance offer valuable enterprise financing solutions to enable long term SME growth. This is only the beginning of our SME development journey together with valued partners like MAF ORIX Finance. I am confident that as the Dubai SME100 initiative grows in strength, more valued partners like MAF ORIX Finance will come on board which will only benefit the development of our SMEs. Our top SMEs are growing fast all the time and we need partners like MAF ORIX Finance to enable their growth and development.”

Mr. Arshi Islam, CEO of MAF ORIX Finance said: “We are excited to partner with Dubai SME100 to address the growing needs of UAE entrepreneurs and in particular the SME sector. Medium term financing through leasing of fixed assets is crucial for SME’s to transform themselves into successful business enterprises and to compete in the local and international markets. We look forward to maximizing growth and helping create employment opportunities in various productive sectors of the UAE economy.”

Benefits Offered by MAF ORIX Finance

Preferential interest rates

Designated as a priority account for a dedicated relationship manager

Priority transaction processing

Higher loan amounts

Priority access to New Financial Products as and when introduced by MAF ORIX Finance.

DubaiSME100

In line with the strategy to groom promising SMEs, the Dubai SME 100 ranking will act as a platform and catalyst to identify promising SMEs – to groom them to become bigger, better and sustainable enterprises; eventually graduating them to large globally-oriented companies. At its core, the ranking is aimed at:

Celebrating Dubai’s top performing SMEs

Creating greater awareness of the importance of SME development  

Creating a national motivational psyche in the nation’s social and business community

Encouraging SME role models to share their best practices in management 

Marketing the capabilities of Dubai’s SME’s to regional and global investors

Providing opportunities  for SMEs  to raise capital

Creating a base of SMEs for a potential secondary listing of SMEs (IPO) that can attract equity capital for growth 

Providing development path for SMEs to graduate

Creating a culture of transparency, corporate governance and best practice sharing.  

Unlike other rankings which are based mainly or purely on financial indicators, the Dubai SME 100 ranking places a balanced emphasis on financial and non-financial dimensions of enterprise performance and development. The non-financial dimensions cover Innovation, International Orientation, Human Capital Development and Corporate Excellence. The ranking will also serve as a tool for helping SMEs identify capability gaps for improvement.

The ultimate outcome is for Dubai to have more growth-oriented, innovative, capable and sustainable enterprises that can fly the UAE flag high. 

The basic criterion is that the applicant must be an SME based on the official definition of Dubai’s SMEs, with up to 250 employees and a turnover of up to AED250 million. In addition, it must have audited financial statements for at least three years, and be an independent entity registered in Dubai (under DED or any Free Zone).  

Over 830 eligible SMEs have been nominated by banks, business councils and Free Zones to participate in the initiative, with more applications coming in. The first ever Dubai SME100 ranking list will be out in late October 2011.