Boosting the digital competencies of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (mSMEs) will increase the financial inclusion of the sector by creating a broader network of investors that will help them to unlock untapped resources, UAE representatives told a G20 Finance Track meeting.
Improving connectivity will also provide the sector with direct access to alternative cost-effective channels of funding, Mariam Al Hajri, a deputy manager at the Ministry of Finance, and Fatima Al Jabiri, head of the Central Bank of the UAE's Consumer Protection Department, told the G20’s first Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) meeting.
“There is a need to improve financial literacy programmes during the post-Covid era”, as it will allow individuals and companies to make “sound financial decisions”, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Wednesday.
The online GPFI meeting discussed ways to develop financial inclusion and determine methods for the mSME sector – the main provider of jobs across the world – to recover from the pandemic.
The UAE team reaffirmed the country’s ongoing efforts to spur the mSME sector, which is at the forefront of the UAE's ambition to become a global incubator for industry, trade and innovation.
In June last year, the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development teamed up with more than 40 federal, local and semi-government entities as well as the private sector to implement a coalition project to support mSMEs.
The project focuses on mSMEs operating in highly skilled fields, particularly “science, healthcare, information technology and innovative solutions” that will be supported by loans from the leading banks, the department said at the time.
The UAE delegation said the pandemic has affected smaller businesses in multiple ways and that it is important for the G20 to gauge each country’s level of development when offering practical solutions for challenges faced by smaller businesses.
The G20 Finance Track’s second GPFI meeting will be held on June 24 and 25 to review the progress of reports and programmes approved so far, according to the statement.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Why are asylum seekers being housed in hotels?
The number of asylum applications in the UK has reached a new record high, driven by those illegally entering the country in small boats crossing the English Channel.
A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001.
Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation while their claim is assessed.
The Home Office provides the accommodation, meaning asylum seekers cannot choose where they live.
When there is not enough housing, the Home Office can move people to hotels or large sites like former military bases.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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