RIYADH: Efforts to enhance the number of small and medium enterprises in the Kingdom — as well as the number of Saudis working in the sector — were a hot topic at the SME forum on Monday. The Committee for the development of small enterprises at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized the forum.
Board Director of the Riyadh Chamber Abdul Rahman Al-Jeraisi said SMEs in many countries provide jobs to more than 70 percent of the population and contribute between 37 and 62 percent of local production. In the Kingdom SMEs employ not more than 25 percent of the total work force, 75 percent of which are expatriates.
Deputy Minister for Commerce and Industry Qasim Al-Maimani said the ministry took steps to eliminate obstacles, facilitate, enable and develop procedures that had previously held investors back from reaching out to services they required. Al-Maimani pointed out that businessmen and women need less time to get service. Now it takes one day to issue a trade registry, where it used to take two weeks. A final industrial license now takes three days where it used to require a month.
Director of project evaluation Hamad Al-Khodair at Banque Saudi Fransi said the bank is studying the possibility of loaning even to projects it had been reluctant to accept previously. His audience complained on the long time the bank takes to decide on loans. Al-Khodair said the bank is making an effort to speed up decisions on loans.
Director General of supporting SME projects programs, Abdulaziz Ismael, said the ministry is considering establishing a national center for SMEs. He said 67 percent of young Saudis do not know how to explore the commercial market while 890 thousand establishments in the Kingdom employ only 9 percent of the Saudi work force. Ismael indicated that the Kingdom needs initiatives to build an economic entity for SMEs.
The director of the Human Resources Development Fund, Mohammed Al-Aabisi, showed the audience how to apply for a loan from the HRDF. He said the fund is working on having a larger role in the development of the Saudi employee.
SMEs employ only a quarter of work force
