A thriving small business sector has long been acknowledged as crucial to overall economic success and while that is as true for us as it is elsewhere, the reason is different here compared to many other countries. Usually the importance of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector is because it provides jobs, but here the positions created overwhelmingly go to expatriate workers, mostly from South and Southeast Asia.
Instead, the importance of a healthy SME sector is through supporting the major companies operating here, providing niche services that large corporations are ill-suited to provide but which otherwise would be done by foreign contractors. Equally important is the goal of diversifying the economy away from extractive industries, making it more multifaceted, and by establishing the UAE as an entrepreneurial hub, acting as a counterbalance to the large public sector.
At present, SMEs account for about 60 per cent of the UAE’s non-oil economy, including 90 per cent of businesses overall. The sector employs more than 42 per cent of workers, with the Ministry of Economy predicting that SMEs will account for 70 per cent of the country’s GDP by 2021.
However those running SMEs face a series of challenges, despite many factors in their favour. The benefits include the absence of tax and the fact that we rate 23rd – the highest of any Arab country – in the World Bank's 2014 survey on the ease of doing business. But as The National has reported, some SMEs find it difficult to access loans at reasonable rates – or often getting a loan at all. The bank rejection rate for loan applications made by SMEs varies between 50 and 70 per cent, while this month thousands of small businesses were advised by Standard Chartered bank that it would no longer offer them banking services.
What should be done to help this sector? Tax relief is a commonly used tool elsewhere but obviously does not apply here. The National recognised the importance of SMEs by launching a campaign yesterday to support them. Giving this sector easier access to credit, albeit with proper risk measures in place, will allow business owners to achieve their full potential. If SMEs thrive, the entire UAE economy will reap the rewards.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Info
What: 11th edition of the Mubadala World Tennis Championship
When: December 27-29, 2018
Confirmed: men: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Kevin Anderson, Dominic Thiem, Hyeon Chung, Karen Khachanov; women: Venus Williams
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.ae, Virgin megastores or call 800 86 823
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
