Commercial Bank of Dubai offers privileges for ‘Dubai SME 100’

Dubai SME, the agency of the Department of Economic Development (DED), Government of Dubai, entrusted with the development of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, has signed a partnership agreement with Commercial Bank of Dubai to offer benefits to the top 100 SMEs.

HE Abdul Baset, Chief Executive of Dubai SME, thanked CBD for their commitment and support of this critical initiative to champion the SME sector. He said “This is only the beginning of our SME development journey together with valued partners like CBD. I am confident that as the Dubai SME100 initiative grows in strength, more valued partners like CBD will come on board which will only benefit the development of our SMEs. Our top SMEs are growing fast all the time and we need partners like CBD to help in the enabling and grooming process, which is not only financial access but non-financial aspects as well, especially in financial management capability development”

Mr. Faisal Galadari, General Manager – Business Group of Commercial Bank of Dubai said: “We, at CBD are proud to be associated with Dubai SME 100 to support and offer benefits to the top 100 SMEs. We have always endeavored to promote & strengthen the SME sector in the UAE. Today CBD & Dubai SME100 is beginning a journey towards SME development and I am confident that this partnership will grow from strength to strength to benefit the development of our SMEs leading to the prosperity of Dubai.”

Under the MOU, CBD will commit to develop a special SME100 package covering a complete suite of SME products such as Working Capital Lines, Trade Finance Products, Short/Medium Term Loans, Cheques / Export Documents Discounting, Vehicle finance, etc., designated as a priority account for a dedicated relationship manager, preferential pricing, priority transaction processing at preferential Schedule of charges, high loan/facilities amount limits, low collateral obligations, reduced fees and charges on export transactions & flexible repayment options.

DubaiSME100

In line with the strategy to groom promising SMEs, the Dubai SME 100 ranking will act as a platform and catalyst to identify promising SMEs – to groom them to become bigger, better and sustainable enterprises; eventually graduating them to large globally-oriented companies. At its core, the ranking is aimed at:

• Celebrating Dubai’s top performing SMEs
• Creating greater awareness of the importance of SME development
• Creating a national motivational psyche in the nation’s social and business community
• Encouraging SME role models to share their best practices in management
• Marketing the capabilities of Dubai’s SME’s to regional and global investors
• Providing opportunities for SMEs to raise capital
• Creating a base of SMEs for a potential secondary listing of SMEs (IPO) that can attract equity capital for growth
• Providing development path for SMEs to graduate
• Creating a culture of transparency, corporate governance and best practice sharing.

Unlike other rankings which are based mainly or purely on financial indicators, the Dubai SME 100 ranking places a balanced emphasis on financial and non-financial dimensions of enterprise performance and development. The non-financial dimensions cover Innovation, International Orientation, Human Capital Development and Corporate Excellence. The ranking will also serve as a tool for helping SMEs identify capability gaps for improvement.

The ultimate outcome is for Dubai to have more growth-oriented, innovative, capable and sustainable enterprises that can fly the UAE flag high.

The basic criterion is that the applicant must be an SME based on the official definition of Dubai’s SMEs, with up to 250 employees and a turnover of up to AED250 million. In addition, it must have audited financial statements for at least three years, and be an independent entity registered in Dubai (under DED or any Free Zone).

Over 830 eligible SMEs have been nominated by banks, business councils and Free Zones to participate in the initiative, with more applications coming in. The first ever Dubai SME100 ranking list will be out in late October 2011.