Shurooq and EO discuss Sharjah’s Entrepreneurship Sector

The Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) and the Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) met on Monday 23rd May 2016, to explore future collaboration, as well as discuss a sustainable framework which supports their business goals and business infrastructure.

The meeting took place at Al Qasba, where both bodies aligned their initiatives to foster sustainable innovation in business and streamlining their expertise and services to entrepreneurs’ demands and needs. 

Attending the roundtable were Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi, Chairperson of Shurooq, HE Marwan bin Jassim Al Sarkal, CEO of Shurooq and Najla Al Midfa, Director of Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre (Sheraa). Present from EO were Manish Hira, President and Bilal Alibhai, Integration Chair and President-Elect of the organisation, Nitin Anand, UAE Member at EO, and Chair of Executive Council and Director of Skyline University College along with a number of other entrepreneur members of EO UAE.

Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi welcomed the President and the members from EO, and spoke about her dedication to supporting entrepreneurial innovation and leadership and her efforts in providing the necessary facilities and services that act as a sustainable framework to help entrepreneurs achieve their business goals, emphasising on how Al Qasba was a prime example of entrepreneurship in practice, with its location now a beacon for entrepreneurial businesses. 

Sheikha Bodour added that the popular tourist and leisure destination continues to deliver premium entrepreneurial services and offer a dedicated business environment, highlighting the destination’s distinctive ability to attract a diversified set of visitors. She described how she had been inspired to turn Al Qasba into a unique attraction for all types of tourism and businesses, reflecting on Sharjah’s position as the region’s central destination for investments, leisure and tourism.

“All of the projects that Shurooq undertakes are carefully selected and aim to be at the forefront of heritage, leisure cultural and eco-tourism developments. Our objective is to diversify Sharjah’s tourism sector to boost the emirate’s non-oil foreign investments and entrepreneurial opportunities and to create new and exciting experiences for tourists seeking unique cultural tourism experiences. This strategy was implemented to meet our local and regional market demands by providing a diverse economic ecosystem that attracts innovative technologies and pioneering businesses. Our goals are in line with the UAE’s directives in growing its travel and tourism sector,” said Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi.

Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi concluded that these leading initiatives play a key role in developing Sharjah’s cultural, educational and social infrastructures, which are in-line with the wise vision of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah. As an example, Sheikha Bodour highlighted UNICEF’s accrediting of Sharjah as a ‘baby-friendly city’, which has served as a catalyst to attract many innovative solutions and ideas by women entrepreneurs in particular. She continued by mentioning that baby-friendly rooms are allocated across multiple organizations where women entrepreneurs can enjoy the tranquil environment of conducting their businesses while their children rest in a safe facility. These initiatives not only allow a feasible business and investment environment, but also encourages women to pursue their business goals in a peaceful state-of-mind. 

Discussing Sharjah’s desire to build a diversified economy, HE Marwan bin Jassim Al Sarkal described how Sharjah was originally developed to be a commercial hub. He explained that oil represented just one per cent of its GDP, with tourism now ten times this amount. He went on to outline how Shurooq was aiming to encourage investment and entrepreneurship in four key sectors; tourism, healthcare, logistics and the environment.

“Sharjah is working towards changing perceptions about Sharjah by showing the multitude of opportunities and benefits it offers entrepreneurs. The emirate is home the 22 million square foot Sharjah Healthcare City and with Sharjah only currently offering 0.6 hospital beds per 1,000 of the population when the global average is 2.2 beds, there is a real potential for high returns on entrepreneurial endeavours in this area,” HE said.

“Sharjah is the only city in the region with three seaports, one being the deepest seaport in the UAE. This offers fantastic opportunities for logistics operations, as well as berthing for cruise ships, which will stimulate tourism. With respect to the environment, Sharjah is the only city in the Middle East that turns all of its waste into energy, so all these sectors offer great opportunities for entrepreneurs to create viable, sustainable and rewarding startups,” he added.

HE Al Sarkal’s assessment of Sharjah as a premium environment for entrepreneurs included his pointing out that unlike other regional business destinations, setting up a startup in the emirate was a comparatively low-cost venture, with a lack of repeat fees involved and very few additional charges. He said that this feature was particularly enticing for those wanting to set up a company but who lacked a high amount of capital outlay. He stated his belief that this was a considerable advantage that would significantly boost entrepreneurship, as smaller concerns would not be hampered by financial considerations. With such a greater scope for smaller businesses becoming established and subsequently thriving, this could only benefit the economy of Sharjah and the wider UAE, he said.

Highlighting the relationship between education and entrepreneurship, Najla Al Midfaa, Director of Sheraa, an initiative under Shurooq, revealed how her organisation had forged strong relationships with Sharjah University City, an educational district with 20,000 students and 20,000 alumni. She cited a number of entrepreneurial success stories that had resulted from these links, including an American University of Sharjah (AUS) faculty member who had developed a new type of brick grown from bacteria, not fired in a kiln, and the former AUS student who founded Gradberry, the Middle East's first job portal for students and graduates, whose venture has been such a success that she has now moved to Silicon Valley, USA.