(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Government, political and institutional organisations have recently joined Enterprise Qatar's latest SME (small and medium enterprises)-driven initiative, the 'SME Think-Tank', with scores of entrepreneurs and industrial SMEs' owners to discuss challenges, solutions and action plans facilitating SMEs' access to government and semi-government projects' procurement.
The SME Think-Tank was a full-day workshop which brought together stakeholders from the private and public sectors to propose concrete solutions and formulate action plans to alleviate challenges faced by SMEs. The SME Think-Tank was recognised by many as a key platform for productive bilateral dialogue to create and pinpoint vital business opportunities for entrepreneurs.
Noora Al Mannai, CEO of Enterprise Qatar said: "The challenges that face SMEs, when reaching out to the government and semi-government entities, are multi-faceted. The primary purpose of the Think-Tank workshop is to engage various stakeholders in order to glean a comprehensive outlook and deliver an action plan with proper solutions.
This is strongly in-line with the QNDS (Qatar National Development Strategy) 2011-2016 that endeavors to boost small businesses' procurements processes and alleviate burdens by establishing clear and transparent policies."
"EQ's core mandate is to build a flourishing SMEs' sector in Qatar and maximize the SMEs' utilisation of the existing business and growth opportunities. This is one of EQ's central SMEs' development strategies.
Through our partnerships with all other interested government and non-government entities, we will be implementing the reform initiatives that have come out of this Think-Tank to help prospective and existing SMEs to understand the basics about government procurement and the contracting market place.
A pool of EQ experts will be following-up this initiative for an entire year and another major conference will be held during the first half of 2013 in order to engage further collaboration of additional related entities with the objective to improve the programme across its different phases."
"Time well spent, very beneficial" stated Sheikh Nasser bin Nawaf Al Thani, Vice Chairman NBN Holdings, about the workshop.
"Taking the initiative to advise and raise awareness concerning the problems SMEs face is very important. SMEs equate to the development of nations as they are the engine of developing a sustainable economy.
It is essential for SMEs to be a major part of the economy not only for the purpose of development but because SMEs are the driving force for growth," said Maja Lornac from the Apriori Group."
The EQ SME Think-Tank comprised a series of workshops to discuss the main technical and financial challenges that are considered as barriers to the SMEs' effective participation at Government procurement projects.
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