DOHA: Enterprise Qatar (EQ) will launch a series of free workshop-training sessions for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their managerial teams to help them in ensuring their businesses’ success and sustainability, a press statement said yesterday.
The programme will help the trainees to develop creative business plans in addition to raise awareness on the available financing schemes in the local market such as Islamic banking. The training will be provided in cooperation with KPMG, Deloitte, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and Qinvest.
Noora Al Mannai, CEO of Enterprise Qatar, said: “EQ exerts all possible efforts to help the country in creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem, inline with the Qatar National Vision 2030 to develop a versatile, knowledge-based and to create new job opportunities for the Qatari youth. We should focus our attention on startups and SMEs through such programs”.
Al Mannai added: “The workshops were carefully designed to provide the necessary assistance to each concerned party in the managerial, financial, legal and accountability specialities. This programme is part of EQ’s continuous efforts to develop a healthy environment for SMEs”.
The workshop has been divided into two sessions; the first session is dedicated to SMEs’ owners and their managerial teams. This include discussions about the concept of Islamic banking and provide them with other possible financing options in the Qatari market while ensuring Shariah compliance principles.
The second session will focus on the legal side of running a business especially the growing concerns regarding international agreements and buying/selling contracts, jurisdiction definition and means for dispute resolution.
The workshop will focus on medium-term strategic planning for SMEs and moving from the business initiation phase into a longer-term vision with a focus on consolidating internal company structures and financial planning. This will be held on March 26 in cooperation with Deloitte.
The workshop on ‘Corporate Governance’ will be held on April 2 in association with PWC. It will discuss the importance of effective corporate governance in running a successful business and the role it has in sustaining success especially in trans-generational family business ownership. These companies usually face multiple challenges due to lack of awareness of the corporate governance concept.
The workshop on family business financing has been scheduled for April 9. In this session of the training programme, EQ, in cooperation with KPMG, will focus on preparing them to raise capital since this is one of the biggest challenges faced by the SMEs.
The workshop is not only designed to help businesses on how to approach potential creditors whether through banks or venture capital, but also on the importance of preparative accounting and the reflection it has on the entities’ whole wellness. The workshop will also feature a real-life case study from Bahrain, which discusses the possibility of future growth from an SME into larger business through Initial Public Offering.
The Peninsula
