Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani honoured top 50 Small and Medium Enterprises at the SME Excellence Awards Ceremony held yesterday. The award ceremony of SME Excellence List 2016 was organised by Qatar Development Bank and Qatar Chamber at Four Seasons Hotel.
The initiative was designed to provide a valuable platform for exceptional local SMEs, as it showcased their achievements in front of ministers of the state, heads of diplomatic missions, and distinguished private and public sector leaders in attendance at the ceremony. Addressing the gathering, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), QDB, Abdulaziz bin Nasser al-Khalifa said: "We are delighted to stand before you today with yet another proactive initiative: SME Excellence List 2016.
To this end, QDB has shortlisted 50 outstanding performers of the local private sector from amongst a collection of more than 800 SMEs. Our team distinguished these finalists on the basis of stringent criteria – a testament of their success is that the total income achieved by these 50 SMEs amounts to nearly QR1bn."
Computer Station Company, Specialised Qatar Window and Door System, Kaafe Chocolatier, Qatar International Consolidated Company, Saad and Majed for Technical Solutio and Green Energy and Environmental Services were the top five companies to win the award.
The QDB CEO added:“It is our firm belief that these companies have taken tremendous strides to unlock their potentials. In the days to come, we urge them to continue focusing on development and innovation in all aspects of their work, so that they may compete locally, regionally and globally with the very best in their respective industries, as envisioned in Qatar National Vision 2030. Furthermore, in future, we encourage all SMEs operating in the country and registered in Qatar to seize the opportunity and join our SME rating initiative.”
The SME ranking programme sheds light on the growing maturity within the private sector and the ability of the budding SME sector to generate large incomes. A key objective of the ranking program is to foster a culture of and competition in the economic system by ranking top SME performers on a clearly established set of criteria and providing a roadmap to success for other SMEs to follow.
