The United Arab Emirates is the second friendliest country for small and medium enterprises (SME) in the world, according to a new research by the Association of Chartered Certified Accounts (ACCA) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). The study featured a survey of nearly 1,600 SMEs from all over the world.
According to ACCA’s and IMA’s “Back in the Game – Global SME Performance 2013/2014” report, the UAE is the second most SME-friendly country in the world, followed by the United Kingdom. In addition, along with the U.K. and Ireland, the United Arab Emirates has also registered the biggest all-round improvement in the past one year.
Profitable opportunities for investment for SMEs in the UAE have, too, witnessed an huge rise during the 2013-2014 period. Also, financial skills were among the most in-demand among small and medium companies in the Gulf country. SMEs’ optimist, on the other hand, was greatly boosted by Dubai’s successful Expo 2020 bid.
The only country that is more SME-friendly than the UAE is Singapore. According to the report, it has showed an impressive performance in terms of capital availability. Singapore’s government now offers various fiscal and financial incentives to small and medium companies, in an attempt to reduce their operating costs, increase their productivity and give them a more international status. Nevertheless, Singapore had its weak spot. The research has found that, unlike the United Arab Emirates, the Asian country offers limited profitable opportunities.
The UAE is also second in terms of government support for SMEs. In this category, the UAE surpassed Hong Kong and Singapore. China was the only economy that showed a better government support performance than the United Arab Emirates.
The report’s conclusion is that SMEs worldwide have started to show more confidence and optimism about their near-future performance. Micro and small businesses now focused more on financial training, whereas bigger SMEs preferred to put more emphasis on building human capital. All in all, the last 12 months were an year of recovery for many small and medium enterprises all over the world.
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