SME Awards

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Best SME in the GCC award winners receive their award.

The awards are open to all SMEs in the GCC's irst and only media led SME Awards initiative Country and sector neutral.

The award committee which comprised of 13 judges came together in June earlier this year to decide who met the criteria of the nominees put forward. The judges were: The SME banking head of Standard Chartered Bank, Sunando Mukhopadhyay, Mike Solimani Priority Banking & SME Head (Emirates NBD), T.V Ramesh, director finance & strategic planning, Hamriyah Free Zone, and Ernest Azzam, graphics business manager for the Imaging and Printing Group, HP Middleast.

CEMEA Commercial Solutions Forum was held in the Middle East for the first time this year and with this in mind, we spoke to Visa's Andrew Doukanaris, Head of Commercial Solutions Visa Inc Central and Eastern Europe Middle East & Africa (CEMEA), about its significance to small businesses.

The choice of Dubai as host of this year's forum is a reflection of Visa's commitment to the region and the belief that as an emerging market, the Middle East and CEMEA as a whole has huge untapped potential. At a time when CEMEA's economy continues to diversify, the growth of its commercial sector represents a significant opportunity for Visa and its partner banks to deliver innovative tailor made products that support the business community whether large corporates or SMEs.

Visa Commercial Solutions is a suite of commercial cards tailored to enable small medium enterprises (SME), multinational companies, medium-to-large enterprises and government entities to streamline their payment processes. It also helps to manage expenditure information which in turns helps organisations to reduce their administrative costs. In short, it effectively manages business purchases and expenses which is important for time strapped SMEs.

While the definition of an SME differs greatly, their core needs do not. Cash flow, convenience and cost containment are priorities for all SMEs; says Andrew "Visa Commercial is uniquely poised due to its global acceptance and security to serve SMEs from a payable and receivable point of view. Visa is the best way to pay suppliers and is the best way to be paid as a merchant."

Upcoming trends in finance signpost big things for the region. According to Visa's Commercial Consumption Expenditure Index released in July 2008, annual global commercial spending grew to an estimated $77.3 trillion in 2007, an increase of 12.2 percent. The index revealed that Central/Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) experienced estimated growth in commercial spending of 20.5% for 2007, making CEMEA the fastest growing region in the world.

The CCE index is a financial metric that provides standardised tracking of business and government spending globally and is recognised as an industry benchmark for measuring commercial spending.

Moreover, statistics released by the International Finance Corporation and World Bank Group in January 2007, show that on average 80 per cent of the total regional business and employment market is made up of SMEs, and this figure is as high as 86 per cent for the UAE. Based on this industry commentators believe that the GCC's SME sector is poised for remarkable growth over the coming years.

"As the SME sector grows, says Andrew, we have noticed that SMEs increasingly want to become more efficient in their cashflow management." Regional research shows that SMEs value 5 main tenants above all. They are:

Cashflow management - Visa Commercial products can replace inefficient forms of payment and help SMEs streamline their payment processes as well as helping to manage expenditure information. This in turns helps organisations to reduce their administrative costs. In short, it effectively manages business purchases and expenses.

Global Acceptance -small businesses need a form of payment that is recognised globally. There is no point having a credit or debit card if none of your suppliers accept it. Therefore Visa's unsurpassed global acceptance provides the convenience and flexibility that they need.

Rewards - Visa Commercial solutions can provide them with purchasing savings, rewards and discounts that otherwise would only be available to large corporates which have the bargaining power to negotiate discounts.

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