DAMMAM, 6 May — The first Small and Medium Investment Forum and Saudi Invention Fair will be inaugurated at the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today. Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd, governor of the Eastern Province, is expected to attend the function.
Addressing a press conference, Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, the newly elected chairman of the Eastern Province Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that in recent years the chamber had put a special emphasis on the growth and development of the small and medium scale enterprises.
He added that the proposed forum and fair was a chamber’s initiative to give a boost to this sector.
Al-Rashid, addressing the representatives of the SMEs, assured them that the chamber was committed to enhance its activities for the growth and development of the sector and that the chamber has set up a special cell in this regard, which will completely focus on the issues related to SMEs.
Ibrahim Al-Olayan, the new secretary-general of the chamber, briefed media and businessmen on the center. He explained that it will have a data bank on investment opportunities in this sector and will identify areas where small and medium-scale investments could be made. The chamber will also assist new investors in finding out about the rules and regulations and channels of finances and the procurement of licenses.
About the new inventions in Saudi Arabia, Khaled A.K. Al-Qahtani, vice chairman of the chamber’s board of directors, said that talents abound in the Kingdom. There was a need to identify such talents and provide them an exposure so that those talents could be channeled in a proper direction.
The exhibition of these inventions will give an insight into Saudi businessmen’s innovation and bring to the fore the hidden talents among their compatriots.
The representatives of the forum, along with a number of the inventors present at the press conference, urged the media to give as much exposure to new inventions and highlight the problems faced by the SMEs.
Tomorrow, the fair will be opened to the public in a newly erected tent at the chamber’s premises. It is first such large scale fair organized by the chamber.
