 I think we're good to go. So welcome to the session and thank you for attending. We'll be spending the next hour talking about investing in SMEs, the business case for direct use. We'll be focusing the discussion on the Arab world. So we'll be touching upon the general challenges we're just facing SMEs with a specific religion focus on the Arab world perhaps. We have a fantastic group of analysts here that I'm fortunate to share the format starting with Mr. Marco Comascio on my right is the president of the CAA Technologies Group. And we have his excellency Abdel Wahed Sohail, and he's the chief engineer and engineer in Morocco. And we have, of course, Mr. Jinyoung Kai, and he's the president and he's the first chair of this summit's meetings. And we have Mr. Fahad Tahir, who's the CEO of Tahir Investments. Let's get started with the question that we're here to address. This is a presentation of the committee to give an example. Just to give an example. Just to give an example. As a whole, it has any chance of leading it. A lot of these employment opportunities that should be created will come from the SMEs. They are key contributors of the employment sector as it stands in the region. And addressing the challenges facing number one, and allowing them to grow as much as possible. So this is the focus of our discussion. Before we start, I would like to tell you that we have been using technology for a long time. So I would like to ask that some of you come forward on this electronic platform so that we can all join together in the discussion. So I would like to ask that some of you come forward on this platform and answer the first question. I would like you to tell us about your background so that we can get to know the community so that we can get to know the dialogue and the discussion. We want to know if you're from a small company that is interested in participating in this project. The last one, for the medium part, is that this area is full of dollars of oil. And when it comes to the small and medium-sized companies, and as Mr. Jn Yong said, this project doesn't include the demand for less money in the world. I think that the main challenge here is to get rid of an ecological system that is able to make money that is a problem in the financial infrastructure and its ability to reach small and medium-sized companies. And the deal with it is different from the deal with companies that need a different infrastructure. And we also need a special expertise. The second problem is that it is difficult for any financial institution or bank in every aspect of the world to make money for small and medium-sized companies and this doesn't happen. I will not call the act in the political field. It's not entirely in the financial field. There is a strong financial spirit in the business field. But remember that the ability to get money is first related to loans, then there is the essential or the fundamental capital. And this gives the opportunity to develop the capital. But this side is not as strong as it is in other countries. There is money, but it doesn't reach the right place. And the numbers are pretty much the same. Only 8% of the loans in this area is for small and medium-sized companies. And in the Gulf region, only 2% of the loans are for small and medium-sized companies. So it is clear that the money in this business is hard. And this is related to the financial environment. And it is related to the development of companies or the work environment, as we call it. You have also the government, maybe all of the certain regulations not all regulate. In the first session, Abraham said in the morning, I would like to get a little bit of advice about the room. Thank you. How many of you believe that financing is the second and the most challenging thing is in the region? Not as a small and medium-sized company, not as a medium-sized company, not as a medium-sized company, not as a medium-sized company, not as a medium-sized company, not a medium-sized company, not as a medium-sized company, not as a medium-sized company, not as a medium-sized company. Maybe it's because working with an instrument not a big company, It's a regulatory role in terms of the financial situation to the number of other countries that are under control. Do you think that they need to have a direct direct back to the financing? I would say that the Arab government should venture with 150 million dollars in every country to finance SMEs. Do you think that they should play a role in direct financing or should they only facilitate their establishment and regulate the work of the banks? There's no doubt that governments have a role to play, however governments are different from one country to another. And what happens in the Arab world is not the same as what we find in other countries. We cannot imagine a banking system that impacts the people's money and we can't have the governments deciding where this money should go to which companies. And they should take risks into consideration, fiscal balance, etc. But there's no doubt that SMEs that find difficulty to access financing or loans need support from the government. There are certain experiences and I will give you some examples from Morocco. Funds for capitalizing SMEs to support these SMEs in their initial capital. In addition, certain SMEs find it difficult to get short-term loans that enable them to do their day-to-day work. And there we can provide some collateral from the public sector to support or to help these SMEs under certain conditions because we need to give them financial support in different ways. But the golden rule here is that these SMEs need to be viable. They have to be viable and we cannot deal with the issue of financing or loans on the basis of the charity. These enterprises need to reach a level of dependence that allows them to be sustainable and to grow. And certain medium enterprises can be some big enterprises. And of course the medium and small enterprises are not necessarily similar because they work in services and traditional handicrafts up to modern technologies. There is a possibility to support them but we don't believe that the government should force banks to give credit to any kind of enterprise, small medium or otherwise. I don't think this is a further approach. Allow me to ask a follow-up question. This is not a proper or a reasonable question. Do you think that the government should establish funds specifically for SMEs? And if the answer is yes, then why isn't that happening so far? Yes, this is possible and certain governments, for example in Morocco, we only have financial support for SMEs. We also have a government body that is managed jointly with the SMEs, with their trade unions and also with the women enterprises, youth enterprises and some public sector enterprises that work also in collaboration with the banks. They have developed their work to the extent that now they have a rating that enables these enterprises to gradually reach a stage where you can know the exact risk that is entailed in their work and the kind of risk that they can face in order to prepare for that this was achieved through cooperation between the public and private sector and civil society that represents SMEs. The problem is not only financial but the SMEs. There are other problems, for example access to real estate. This is extremely important because real estate is very expensive, especially in the cities and urban areas. The big problem is SMEs' face. And it seems that the audience is actually in agreement with the state and then you just said which is a little over half of the audience here does not believe that financing is the greatest challenge. So let's keep picking on this issue and perhaps you can revisit the course that you blended. Mr. Maudley, what role can technology perform in facilitating the number one financing business of SMEs opening up new revenue streams and perhaps lowering the transaction costs? I think here's one opportunity that you're currently living and witnessing that perhaps is a bright story in this channel. I believe that for the SMEs nowadays through the innovation technology we can open up opportunities that I don't believe that. But if you think about the global markets just through the Internet capabilities, certainly the more immediate crisis can have a continuity that I believe of. And certainly the more immediate crisis in this part of the world can benefit a lot because there is a lot of competencies. A lot of opportunities to go out and this is possible through the global market. At the same time, there are also some challenges. And if you think about the need of creating an application with the speed of the market imposed today, the challenge of the security is not just something that is a challenge for the bigger enterprises. It becomes a challenge for the more immediate crisis. So that's why I think the technology should go to the next level, not just to help the larger enterprise but to find the model to help the smaller enterprises. And probably many people nowadays hear what goes under the umbrella of the cloud computing that this is exactly how we can make the services more scalable for more immediate crisis. In this way, we can keep the complexity in the provider of the services and to make the services cheaper available for the smaller enterprises. This I think is a part of it that will help to go to the next level and discuss about many examples. As the discussion goes, I'm looking forward to hearing creative ideas about ideas of how can technology facilitate this process. One idea I heard yesterday during our brainstorming session is a peer-to-peer credit trading exercise that has taken place in Brazil, whereby a lot of the problems we're suffering in our world is we don't have good information, particularly when it comes to SMEs on their credit work. They don't have to be sold to sort of crowd-sourcing, trading the process using the technical process. So I'm looking forward to hearing more about that as we go forward before we pick up the discussion with Mr. Fatihah. Just want to remind all of you that please you can post your questions directly through the URL that you were given. We'll be using a mixture of running to and through this technology and to direct the good old-fashioned questions using mics. And you can vote up or down on microphones as you please if you can, and perhaps post a spring democratic euphoria that we're experiencing. Mr. Fatihah, you come from an experience in Eastern Europe whereby you have been involved in providing private capital, financing, and business. An interesting story is Eastern Europe going from perhaps almost total public sector control into close to very high numbers of privatization mentioned in perhaps number 84. This is a very interesting success story. What can we learn in Asia for? Well, I think one factor that we're going back to was that I see a presentation and funding. And I ask you, now it is total into 1990, the total state control. And I remember when we used to say to them that the government is at the gates to search people for black to African women. We could not be able to meet them. Okay. And today, in the program of the SCA, we're going back to private capital. And now it is possible to look back to private capital. And I'm practically in those states anymore running a major role. Anything has to be measured. It's not based on corporations. Today, this has been broken down into very small units. When we were in the 90s, we have a talk to people who may have taken raw materials, crude oil. Today, we have about 20 people that are in the oil market. There are a lot of guys, which we have a lot of clients in the different areas of the culture. In the field of agriculture, industry, tourism, and these companies, we invest them directly. It may sound big today, but actually with more than $1 billion, I don't know if it will be $5,000 or $10,000. One of the most well known business people in Romania today is a member of the European Parliament. He came in 1994 and he wanted to open a coffee shop. So through a challenge, he told me he came. I said, what do you want? He said, I want $5,000 because I need to buy a machine for the bread. But to put it into another world, the cake will melt. So I gave him the money, he made the shop. We got from the 60% to start out. The way we got to the two at the beginning in Kuwait, nobody in Romania was there to fix it. If you can imagine, there was no person who could vote a split in Romania. My father used to be an agent for coalman, so I went to the shop and I fixed him there for business. My father was his wife for the single month. He was the director and his mother-in-law was the kitchen. Today he owns five five-star hotels. He is one of the largest traders in the market. He owns two five-star hotels, so he bought about $23 billion. Very interesting, somebody who started with $5,000. I think we should learn from East Europe. I have seen the World Bank has done a great job there. I really don't know how this can be applied in the Middle East. But looking at it, everybody here thinks of government, government is government. No one has money. Saudi Arabia has money. But the country has no money. It has no natural resources. But I think we have something better than all of them. We have our people, but we will need to get it. But it's successful. We build the government. When I travel around, we are out and about 30 countries. I meet Jordanians everywhere. And other people don't know that. We meet Jordanians everywhere. But it's successful. But they have a lot of money. So I think somehow they have to create for their successful Jordanian people who are building this island with Saudi Arabia, who are building it, who have the smartness, who have the knowledge. We come back and start working in this international level of creating a new business. People here have no access to money. If you are very smart, I could finish quality. If you want $10,000, you will go around in circles in the bank. They don't talk to you. Thank you. I had a few points on what you said on Jordan. We are very proud of what we have done here. When you land in this beautiful airport, I have seen that financing for that beautiful airport and a lot of controversies. And I was here a couple of months ago to be part of the inauguration. I could not be more taught by some Jordanians that this is a symbol in the difficult time. And one of the largest investments you've ever done, a beautiful company here. I don't know if you've heard of it before. We are a big part of that. And right now they are one of the leading companies in the region. Internally, I think maybe in the world, they are all producing U.S. And there are a lot of entrepreneurship. And we are on that question, you know, if financing is the only construction, this is not, it's a multi, you know, you need a lot of joint interventions. Absolutely. The government should not be involved in picking winners. The government can support funds seeing that the private sector running a fund includes support. That's why they need enterprises. But in the end, it's not just creative enterprises. Remember, this is the most risky part of the life-saving economy. We love to help them. And frankly, the government and the banks, we will help them grow to go to the individual players. And that will be a risk, a lot of things. And that's where the real jobs, sustainable jobs will be created. A lot of things are needed. But the most important thing is, in my view, is the partnership between the public. Not only the government, the public in general, the media, not giving enough trust to the private sector. I'm not saying the private sector can see there. They need to be sure, always learn from the experience. Be inclusive. Serve not only the rich, but also serve the poor. Because by serving poor, you create a new demand for your future. So these are the things we all need to do to work together. It's not just one, let's have a magic formula. One thing they'll fix all the problems. My life is in our business. Allow me to describe the trick I... The two examples you gave from Jordan, wonderful though, as they may be, are not focused on SMEs. And SMEs take a lot of time to differ. Okay, on airport, you know how many jobs there are in the crate? During the construction, after serving the airport, 20,000 jobs in subcontracting, absolutely. So do not always do... The value chain is critical. That's a good job. They are going to create the R&D jobs. They are going to create all the supplies. So please, SME is not just... What he said was absolutely correct. This region, in prison, the growth, sadly the competitiveness. You cannot just create a company for the sake of creating a company. That company has to have a competitive edge. Okay, so what I'm saying is, let's think of the issue. We need to support the big companies, different jobs for the little ones. And we are also supporting small companies in helping to grow big. The challenge is, can we make sure we're creating carriers in addition to short-term jobs? I think that's... What can we do to make sure that happens? And just... I think one of the questions that the audience... Let me just... There's a question that the audience submitted that I think is really touches upon this, how can they guarantee for SMEs a workable mechanism? Or do they create a model that goes to others? The IFC has a wonderful experience in that regard. What can we do to provide a third party who is the financing process? Look, I don't believe in guarantees, but again, come down to where are we at the life cycle of this company? You see, everything is not always good or bad. There are always those sides of it. At the initial stage, if you truly believe this is... It's hard to make judgment. Frankly, I wish there would be genius to always make the right judgment. This company is good. I will provide some guarantee on this thing going up. But on the other hand, you often have a situation because of a guarantee that model has... Right? You know, sometimes it wins, but you have to take full intervention. Both for the government and of course for international organization and for this, I heard, you know, this is a full-service bank. Air conditioning, that's very good. Really, all the financial service providers should, you know, you might be able to make that judgment rather than one policy fits all. Yes. I agree with you about the this image about the small and medium-sized projects and that it's good to support large companies of course, but I don't want you to try to do a need-stim-trial in your own life. I think the DFI's like IFC, the Operating of the European Bank of the World Bank, they have concentrated on the large-scale projects and while they were created to handle the economy of them to the ground level, they are now capital-less. I'm sorry, I don't want to discuss this. We have also the vice president of OPEC here, so we can become your host. We will, we should actually, because you see, when you come to come to like Jordan, we have very high-educated people, but until that person will reach to the level of OPEC or level of IFC. I think Jordan has a child now in the world, but I can know I could have never done anything in Jordan. I need more people. I want to prove it to myself. But how? Then we go abroad, then you manage to go to the place you can make business, you go to the state you can make business, you go to the east, you go to the east, you go to the east, you go to the east, you go to the east, you go to the east, and we found a way to find people. Where would the Jordanian now he leave the university? He's smart, he's clever, he has good ideas, he can go to that fifty thousand. You should make this possible. You go to the IFC OPEC, DPRD, that's what the firm position of these institutions was created. This is the economy in general. I'm proud of you. Let me explain this to you. We also do small ones. We just approved the S&E facility, four hundred ten million dollars, that's not a real money to them. That's not a real money to them. They're children with banks. They try and help them to lend money to the borrowable dollar of five thousand dollars. Because we need to think of what is the most effective efficient way for our future. This is twenty million dollars of tiny money for us. That's virtually like a venture capital. Through them, we lend support to people like what you mentioned. So the challenge here is sometimes we look at the world when I'm here, the only big thing actually is that it's not necessarily true. We have invested in multiple venture capital, so it could be no better in Jordan than we do. But we are lending trust to them because they share the same value. On this room or beyond, if you want to have a great idea, an equity capital go to the venture capital we supported, they put real money and usually in those private equity and venture capital, we provide this risk capital. By the way, it's four hundred ten million dollars. What happens if the bank bans you see what the S&E if the S&E has a default event, I'll see what we can do. Okay, so about four hundred million dollars, assuming time for some bad things, we're talking about four billion dollars. We mobilized four hundred four billion dollars to support S&E. So that's the way we use our kind of a left hand and right hand depends on the situation of the S&E. Thank you. I'm going to pose a question to Arabic, so if you want to ask a question about your translation process. I think it's a part of the Japanese base is about the concept of the office of the mortgage of the venture capital we face in any country is the vast majority of real estate in Egypt is owned without official registration and the percentage of real estate is unregistered so it can be collateralized and therefore it cannot be collateralized. What is the solution? In fact once again it varies between one country and another even if the real estate is registered and there is land with known ownership and rights. However there is a big difficulty for a small and medium enterprise to use property for collateral that is equal to the loan that it's going to take so the problem continues even if the property is registered. I worked for more than 35 years in banking when I used to receive a loan application I always responded by saying that the best collateral is a profitable company and a growing company and a company with good management and that this mortgage is the wheel that you put in your car as a research that you may sometimes use it always hoping that this will not happen we must perceive collateral as such with the mentality that the enterprise that manages itself well is the best guarantee guarantee the good management as for other guarantees collateral role the public authorities which may be at the level of the city or the region also this public authority may intervene in supporting collateral collateral is an outdated problem I don't think that big companies are taking long space on collateral on real estate mortgage but they take space on the disability studies and on management and on the credibility of the business but regarding SMEs collateral is a major role because they don't have liquidity yet this collateral plays a big role that's why there is a need for support and the public authority needs to facilitate and the eligible party and support the in Morocco by that is the guarantee for some loans that are given for small and big enterprises let's not despair the person who comes from the responsibility we give them the loan that they are followed up and if they fail and try to understand the reasons for the failure whether they were objective Marco you had the follow up on the conversation we had earlier and I think it's related to the subject we are discussing in a way one level of guarantee it's represented by the transparency that a certain company can bring and you know linking to what I know the best which is the information technology and the tools that can be used if you think about a small and medium enterprise or install an ERP system because if you think about your example it's almost impossible but through a new way of delivering these services this can be done can be used easily can be delivered in a secure way and this will make small and medium enterprise better understand the banking system and therefore the credit can be delivered in an easier way in a more trustworthy way low cost of the service something that will be leveraging the technology in terms of transparency I think we'll enable the opportunity to give additional investment to this small and medium enterprise I don't personally believe that the government can clear the gap I think that's the way that we should go together in finding solutions going back to the audience there's a question so far which is can it succeed if the state sector remains so large in the MENA countries where I hate to go back to Eastern Europe but I think this is the best example in the last 20 years the whole structure of Eastern Europe was built on the destruction of the state organizations absolutely the past law that the state has to say in the industry or the whole industry so the government had to sell within 10 years based on the world back requirements all their companies and we bought some of this because what the government to create to generate money because people exactly as you said people want to go to their business and what the world back actually did with this country is they forced the government to distribute the wealth of the government and small certificates to the individuals of the world vouchers which means that you are in the house and you have not one cent and the next morning you have six vouchers these six vouchers you went to the bank and you were able the vouchers meant nothing because you had a voucher that you own the wealth of the country of Bulgaria but that certificate gave you the right to go to the bank and to be financed this is how we financed people they came with the army certificate they came with thousands of immigrants we gave them the money and they went to Portugal so somehow in the Middle East which is always being run by governments the governments had to find sources they were all used companies I am not an expert as a world corporation but somehow the population has to claim his ownership, his rights his access to this to be able to get financed when you own a fine in Jordan or in Morocco or you own the government on land or they own something this is belong to the people of Morocco the people of Tunisia it doesn't belong to the minister so why the value of the individual in Jordan and what that wealth is why will you go to the 10,000 to make a shop we have to ask to bring land so I think the expertise of the world bank has to create the system, the structure for the individual to be evaluated and to take risks on the population thank you I want to go back directly to the audience in a more fashionable way the mic is ready Naif this is an example of cronism I know you are sorry thanks for your Muhammed thank you for the panel I just want to talk about the SMEs in general but we are talking about financing SMEs based on collateral unfortunately we cannot see and we have not seen any evidence other than financing SMEs another issue I always when we talk with SMEs why don't we support SMEs based on the idea and what I meant by the idea most of the SMEs that we have successful SMEs based on the technology part it's an idea and one of the things that they have suffered was financing them based on the idea and the concept of the project and the plan of the project financing as we said it was not the only obstacle in front of SMEs and is not the major issue that is required by SMEs we have other issues specialized kind of a training that it bases on competencies and behaviors because it's not only financing SMEs but we need to know this SME they have the competencies of sustaining the business and the second is the mentorship we've talked a lot about SMEs but one of the areas is we want a private public private private partnership which is having the successful SMEs being mentors for the stock and this is really important and we cannot see it from the private sector unfortunately we are not asking the government to do that but we are asking the private sector to share their experiences with startups our main thing is technology based SMEs we've seen and I have seen an experience in English and in France where they have specialized training programs about virtual SMEs that involves the startups in getting and starting a business from A to Z for that we are not based on finance do you mind introducing yourself for the sake of the panel just introduce yourself please we are all business development center we are focused on SME development entrepreneurship and youth empowerment I'm going to take one more question and then we can consolidate please Cornelia Maya MRO Corporation from the United Kingdom I would also like to go a move away from the financial problems and move to the legal issues it's important and there is maybe not the IFC but maybe the World Bank we need to help governments to create a legal framework for companies to succeed but also allow them to fail we don't really have bankruptcy laws and how can you let somebody go into business if when he wants to get out of business he has to go to jail so we have to allow for companies to get and also fail the second part is following up on that comment there's something again that the World Bank in terms of creating centers so that new entrepreneurs can come and you get help with accounting and so on the SME, SME helpline is good but if you've just started a company you probably don't have the time and the resources to help so there's something there for the IFIs and the governments to give them okay well why don't we answer this round and then we can go back to the audience we have the issue of scalability we have the issue of collateral we have the issue of idea financing and we have the issue of legal landscape for perhaps supporting creative design, the exit the floor is open for the panel I think I believe that we cannot cut short the problems or the impediments that stand for small, immediate prices when it comes to financing you raise the problem of the real estate and access to real estate and access to markets and the possibility of giving them some space to raise and to flourish there are problems related to the low and in the relations with others I believe all such issues as well as also establishing the frameworks in training and rehabilitation of such SMEs I believe as to such problems cannot be summarized in the debate between SMEs and the state maybe the solution lies in showing solidarity amongst themselves in cooperating amongst themselves then some sort of meeting points in the state's policies we cannot accept a policy for the paper of another policy like combating poverty economic integration micro-integration in the relationship with big enterprises this must be a dynamism or a dynamic way where a number of mistake-holders are involved but it is not impossible to deal with this problem and this problem should be taken into consideration in a comprehensive manner with comprehensive policies that ultimately would target specific issues Dr. Khay, you talked about the importance of issues and other non-finance issues creating an ecosystem that is fit for SMEs can you elaborate on the key dimensions you see fit for the region within perhaps the legal enforcement idea financing, creative destruction what can we do here actually this is very basic financing is only part of the issue the issue is the kind of government to create a level playing field for SMEs for big companies and there was a question when you have a strong state-owned company can you still have SMEs as part because only the critical condition is the regulation is transparent, clear truly create a level playing field including what the lady said about the kind of bankruptcy if you do not allow company bankrupt that means the playing field and on the idea of financing actually there is what we do that called the venture capital do not go to the banks because the bank has a fiduciary duty to make sure they are stable bank is critically important for a stable economy so it's not like there's no way to get there and on the what you said about the privatization in central Europe there are different ways right now looking back that's a great job other people said now but regardless in hindsight they're always very smart but the challenge I do I keep saying the true partnership between the public and the private the government has a critical role to play nobody else can do which is create an enabling environment including bankruptcy in terms of granting permit in terms of a lot of things which only government can do to have that kind of enabling environment the private sector really is up to develop and I would not argue you need there to be still own company or not that's subject to another debate but fundamentally that's really the critical requirement thank you since you mentioned venture capital I just want to back this slide the red bar measures split here between order countries and non-oil countries so in Jordan compared to Kuwait and UAE and Saudi Arabia Jordan and Egypt you can see that there's venture capital perhaps there's a heterogeneity in the region regarding the availability of access to IDF clients it's really nice well it's out of seven actually but this is what we have Marco would you like to touch upon the issue of financing I like also to comment a little bit about the idea on financing the new idea which is related to the IDF financing I think you know if we can select the young people who can bring new ideas I think we should find a way to give a credit on the honor that these people will bring and will deliver results and of course sometimes they will fail but it is fine because I think the experience that they can get from the failure can become really a asset on which the credit can be delivered in the second experience so if we can bring our mentality to the next level it will be great and I think the IT industry should play its own role here maybe you know I represent an American company we should think how to make our experience more relevant to the local environment which probably it's an element of improvement I want to go back to our web application there's a question that will become clear while I'm smiling how will we have more women on SMEs when the culture is against it it's sad that a lot of us come from the medium how can we do it should we worry about should this be a boom absolutely this is something we should worry about again this is this is one of our what we call cross-cutting intervention across whatever we do agriculture and the financial market in IFC we have made a goal that going forward all our loans make to the financial institutions and directly 25% minimum to reach to women and countries because this is a critical part of economic growth and there are different types of experience worldwide and I welcome people to get on the website since we are trying to do what we have done and lessons learned thank you I'm going to go back for one more now to the audience Yonah this is a piece I just wanted to go back to the bank for the interest we said that you go with the funding and then we join the board to the banks to support this there are few cases here in the Middle East where the banks obtain some sort of money from abroad for example but because of the legislation and the law when they obtain those funds for 1% when they give it to the local they go to 10% so I don't know if the solution when you take these funds actually it's a terminal he has no access the other thing I wanted to say about the women sometimes we discuss in the Middle East people are very supply but actually the woman is a big issue all over the world and that will give you one of the most civilized, most educated most advanced companies in the world today in the USA if you have a woman partner so if I go and meet her and you apply a credit for 5 million dollars if I am an owner if we are two men or owners we are entitled to support for 5% if I have a woman with me maybe this will not look nice but in every business I do in the USA I always bring one or two women with me as partners incentives work because I will get lower interest I get higher grant in Africa which will sell against change in South Africa I am developing the national bus company we bought the national bus company and then we have to go to the black area and they just made a law that if you have 25% black ownership you are entitled for we got 25% black then we found out if it's a woman 25% so again why not why not to apply in Jordan if you have a woman you will have in the bank 1% less so then you will see how the women will come out I know the audience was eager I am going to take a very quick round of questions we have very few minutes so keep your questions to around 20 seconds please I am going to take a quick round of questions I am going to take a quick round of questions I am going to take a quick round of questions no I think thank you I think all the issues that we mentioned are valid and I don't think it should be either war I think we need a certain direction which will make life easy in terms of women but I think as a member of the private sector there are initiatives that we can take and we should not wait until these decisions from the government happen and this is doable our accelerators 40% of our accelerators are owned and married by women in Jordan in this room there are two women CEOs so I don't think this is an issue in certain countries but I think if we believe that this is the best capital that we have we believe in it and I think we should start as a private sector giving them opportunities in terms of funding and also in terms of using them to supply our companies in terms of software and the products thank you one more question and I believe over there you can get the mic there please thank you I agree with the issues that have been put for discussion actually just going back to the women issue within the panel do you mind introducing yourself now my name is Reem Bada from the private sector from here in Jordan first of all maybe to have on the panel women to be this is for you know this is teaching what happens is that women talk with women and men talk with women about women so you don't really mean it so at the end of the day the afterthought is very poor so maybe this is what we should start with having said 5% of women in the boards or in the membership well this is sort of a transition I think but I truly believe and hope that if anything of this can happen is to have a real input from them not just to have it on paper and then to have access to the incentive although I maybe believe at the very beginning this could be something to bridge on the vice chair of the man's chain of commerce somewhat you know at one point did present why the matter you know I was there an introduction I didn't point in the court there's no court in the chambers so I said maybe to have more women in the chamber on the board to have what you quote I just wanted to see what's the reaction from the board member it was extremely negative I wouldn't say all of them they say they should compete so at the beginning we should give a boost and I believe they would make a difference but they should be given a chance thank you final question perhaps can I get a mic here please and in the meantime there's a third poll while we're listening to the third question please go back and take it we're revisiting the question of financing the main obstacle I think we need I think we need to create a new generation of entrepreneur unfortunately nearly all graduates aim to be employed with no initiative to establish their own business despite all the incentives given by the government and the reason in my opinion is because the youth have not been prepared very early to take a risk and to create to take initiative I think it exists we have some program for example junior achievement program launched in the United States since 1919 and the volunteer from the private sector could study for example to create their own business during the academic year so all what you need I think is to introduce entrepreneurship in the curricula in the middle school, in high school and in university where in Europe 30% of students will be stated from this training to create their own business from the 25 years old thank you very quick final comments in addressing these questions they can be a direct address of some of these questions mainly I'd like to hear your opinion about creating a culture of entrepreneurship in the Arab world and is this something that the educational system should support or is it something naturally if we do the ease of doing business lower the level the playing field perhaps so final round of comments starting with I think you know the need of more entrepreneurial approach in the young generation it's certainly there I believe that the best way is to make the people try and to give them the opportunity to test their abilities on the ground this is a little bit of risk as I said but the get back we have it's enormous because we get the experience even when they fail just a very short comment on the women I definitely agree that it's a practical way of giving targets in finding women in any kind of situation including a session like this one it's a way to fix the problem easy thank you what regards to women's contribution in SMEs I believe that it is very possible there is an experience in Morocco related to combating poverty in most of the experiences we need to find that for 30% of women who speak headed the to find this and who launched cooperative SMEs I believe that our best measures in many instances we should push them towards this and we need to be genuine for the as a lady so I think she is very bold to know that she leads a very important role so we should give women their status to be in such a suit with their community and also their priority in many fields I think you need multiple interventions in the field you need financing and technology and other things I think there is nothing to be in the month of critical to celebrate success in my view if there are more people made lots of money very successful you are going to inspire a lot of young people with the value of the community so you need all that the panel allows what I am going to say if you will accept what I am going to say all that allows for such a decision you just gave me this I am a practical guy so I am a businessman I am not so there are two problems which comes the problems of the SMEs then you have the issues why we don't try to bring ourselves back when we were young we didn't have so much money to raise a small amount we didn't have enough money we didn't have enough money I think it is a small amount and makes a small amount of 50 million dollars we can give the equity we can give the equity we will concentrate strictly for university graduates with the conditions they must have 25,000 dollars and we make the maximum 30,000 percent Do you know how to have it with the team? The insurers, guys, are perfect to judge people. To ask them about some of the numbers you're drawing. You have a team of three. And they were decided to be the creditors for this. Thank you. This is, I hope, this materializes like I am. I think this has been the result of the last one, please. I think there's been a switch of mind in testament to the discussion we had. Before we had 56% believing that finance is not the greatest constraint, now it went up to 85%. So I think this really is a testament to the issues that were raised here, that there's a lot that's meant to be done in this region when it comes to supporting SMEs, and while finance tends to be the issue that is most discussed, there is a lot to be done, leveling the playing fields, allowing women in, using technology. The government is really facilitating the process. I would like to thank the panelists for their comments. And the audience, my name is Hamal Asas. I'm a professor at the American University in Cairo. I'm the lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School. Thank you for your participation. And I look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you for joining us, and I'll see you soon.