Khalifa Fund organised Reyada forum in Ajman

Abdullah Saeed Al Darmaki, the Chief Executive Officer of Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, said during opening of Reyada Forum in present of H. H. Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, the Crown Prince of Ajman, that "Khalifa Fund and was able during the past years to make lots of changes in the common thinking style for lots of entrepreneurs who are interested in establishing their own businesses and to start their investment experience. The Fund financed about 600 projects with a total fund of AED 900 million. The Fund organised about 394 training courses that 4800 Emiratis from different parts of the country benefited from". "The wise leadership of the country decided in March 2011 to increase the capital of Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development from one to two billions dirhams to expand its services in different areas of the country. The Fund opened three branches in Ajman, Fujairah and RAK to cover all needs of entrepreneurs in the country and to give them the opportunity to benefit from the Fund's services", added Al Darmaki. "The Fund adopted its strategy to provide its services gradually in different emirates based on in-depth study of the needs of the market and identify opportunities. The Fund and during the past one year and half-financed 104 projects in the northern emirates with the total funds of AED 35.6 mn. The Fund organized about 60 training courses outside Abu Dhabi that 2000 Emiratis benefited from", explained Al Darmaki. "The Fund's service in Ajman achieved financing 16 projects with total amount of two millions, and 30 training courses which 500 Emiratis benefited from. The Fund's management is very concerned to contribute to the efforts of sustainable development of Ajman and to empower the entrepreneurs in achieving their dreams and establishing their own business, and to support them tin doing their positive role in building the economy of Ajman as part of the overall development of the national economy", added Al Darmaki. Reyada Forum observed a discussion session with some delegates from Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Environment and ICT Fund. The discussion was about supporting and empowering the business environment and to enable the climate for growth in the field of SMEs in the country. Mr. Ahmed Al Hosani from Ministry of Economy said "through our partnership with the local entities the Ministry of Economy was able to prepare law to regulate the SME sector in a modern way that includes lots of encouragement which have positive effect, that include obligate the government entities to allocate 10% of its purchasing from the local SMEs. The ministry did not include specific law but it approved some definitions for capital, return of the capital and the number of labor. The law will be issued soon". On the other hand, Omar Al Mahmoud the CEO of ICT Fund said "the fund invest in many sectors which are related to communication and information technology field. The Fund supported 15 scientific researched specialized in ICT. There is continuous cooperation between ICT Fund and Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development in finding the visibility in investing in the ICT projects". Number of success stories were presented in the forum, those which were funded by Khalifa Fund in different sectors. AbdulRahman Al Tunaiji, Jasim Al Bastaki and Khalid Al Naqbi presented their success stories and their career development and how they were able to go over all obstructions and difficulties. Also, they speak about the support they got from Khalifa Fund during the first phases in establishing their businesses. At the conclusion of the forum Khalifa Fund organised an intensive training session about idea sources which was presented by Ayman Al Ammadi the head of capability building in the Fund who explained the importance of the idea and how it can be moved to commercially visible idea. In addition, Al Ammadi emphasized on the importance of the innovation and creativity for the entrepreneur who is planning to establish his own project and the importance of making this as daily method. The day was ended with fruitful questions and answers session in which lots of ideas and experiences were exchanged.