Khalifa Fund To Expand Role And Services

Hussain Jasim Al Nowais, Chairman of the Khalifa Fund to Support and Develop Small ’&’ Medium Enterprises has lauded the support and care given by the UAE’s wise leadership to all citizens to enable them realize their aspirations and turn their dreams into productive projects by creating the work incentives and motives for achievement and creativity, as well as for heading steadily toward excellence and uniqueness.

In this connection, Al Nowais highly valued the decision to increase the Fund’s capital from AED one billion to AED two billion. He reaffirmed that this decision will enable Khalifa Fund to go ahead towards assuming its role in the sustainable development of the country under the wise leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. This increase, he said, will enable the Fund develop and diversify its services which will be reflected positively and effectively on the performance of the national economy.

Al Nowais has underscored that the wise directives by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and the constant follow-up by His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Supreme Deputy Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council, have always emphasized the necessity of harnessing all resources and capabilities in service of citizens and enabling them to assume a high stature among the advanced world nations, as these concepts were the foundation for Khalifa Fund to launch excellent services and upgrade advanced programs which provide the needed training and finance for establishing projects of added value, in addition to creating a new generation of local leading entrepreneurs.

For his part, Dr Khalil Al Mutawa, Executive Director of the Khalifa Fund to Support and Develop Small ’&’ Medium Enterprises said: "We have already started preparing our branch in Fujairah and the qualified personnel who are professional business leaders, as well as for supporting the small and medium size projects. I expect that we will start receiving the applications there soon. He indicated that work is currently in progress for preparing another branch in the Emirate of Ajman which will be put into operation during the first half of the current year." "By opening these two branches, the number of Khalifa Fund branches goes up to four, in addition to the Abu Dhabi-based head office. The Fund had already established a branch in the city of Al-Ain and another in the Western Region." Al Mutawa noted that the Fund is currently in the process of organizing workshops and training courses in the emirate of Fujairah on business leadership in general and the handmade and heritage trades in particular in its attempt aimed at developing the citizens capabilities and talents of Fujairah and for boosting the business leadership culture for them before launching our services in the Emirate.

Al Mutawa also said: "We will commit all our efforts to investing this increase in the capital in an ideal manner, and we will work on developing a new and creative set of our financing and non-financing services".

The Khalifa Fund had expressed preparedness to provide the necessary finance for about 50 industrial project ideas which were proposed to business leaders of UAE nationals in Abu Dhabi amounting to total investment value of about AED 236 million within the framework of the Fund’s endeavors for contributing in developing and boosting the industrial sector’s performance in Abu Dhabi in line with the Government directives and Abu Dhabi vision 2030.

Al Mutawa said that Khalifa Fund is providing various financing solutions to the feasible projects that contribute in the service of the national economy through the programs of (Bedaya, Zeyada, Direct Investment and Tasnea) in order to cover all types of projects, in addition to launching a number of initiatives and social financing programs such as the Khutwa Program; Sougha Initiative addressed to handmade and heritage trades; Al-Radda Initiative addressed to the prison inmates; Ishraq Program addressed to the UAE Nationals who were recovered from drug addiction being detained in the National Rehabilitation Center; and Amal Program addressed to people with special needs.

The Khalifa Fund has approved, during the year 2010, financing 60 projects with a total value of AED 111 millions. This increases the number of projects approved to be financed by the Fund since launching its services in mid 2007 to 240 projects of a total value of AED 415 million.

The Fund provide its affiliated projects a set of facilities including exemption from the registration and licensing fees, and the priority of participating in the tenders of some official agencies, in addition to the training and rehabilitation programs in different specialties such as marketing, management, accounting, etc. that can be beneficial to the owners of these projects.

The Khalifa Fund, which was established in 2007, has been providing, through its head office in Abu Dhabi, finance and non-finance services even before the announcement of this generous grant for all UAE nationals, as well as in addition to its two branches located in the city of Al-Ain and in the Western Region, as these services were confined only to the projects established in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

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