DED to train UAE nationals to 'Start your own business in 2005'

The programme, which will be held intermittently from February 19 to March 8, 2005 will begin with a four hour-long seminar entitled: "Start your own business in 2005," to be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. It will be followed by three workshops entitled: "Importance of Marketing for Small Businesses," "Strategic Marketing Plans for Small business" and "How to convert your ideas into successful projects" to be held at the DED.

Mr. Fareed Al Abdulla, Executive Supervisor, Business Sector Development Division, Department of Economic Development (DED) said: "The increasing significance of SMEs in the national economy has driven us to focus our attention on this fast growing sector with a view to offering it extensive support and facilitating its systematic growth. We would like to encourage our national youth to take advantage of the training offered in these programmes as they have been specifically designed to enable the trainees to relate their academic knowledge with practical implementation methods within the current market situation in the country."

The three-part seminar "Start your own business in 2005" will focus on the macro vision of the current UAE market and its needs and examine its requirements against the individual capabilities of the national entrepreneurs. In addition, it will also analyse the differences between the services, manufacturing and trading sectors and detail the basic concepts of marketing products of small businesses. It will also examine the current market situation in the UAE and evaluate individual business ideas in the context of this situation.

The first four-day workshop set to begin on February 20 will focus on "Importance of Marketing for Small Businesses." It will examine the elements of marketing, categorize the differences between marketing and sales, discuss the challenges and consider various case studies of successfully applying marketing strategies.

In the second workshop entitled: "Creating a Strategic Plan," the focus will be on the various types of marketing plans, identifying the target market, choosing the correct strategic plan and developing procedures to foster the target market. The workshop will also discuss identification of new product avenues and the development of the strategic plan.

The training programmes will be conducted by international experts from the region including Dr. Aladin Gamei, Professor of Marketing at Misr International University and the Managing Director (Middle East and Africa at the American Management and Technology Institute, Atlanta, USA, Dr Ibrahim Abdul Aziz Hijazi, Associate Professor of Marketing, American University in Cairo and Dr.Sameer Hanifi, who has extensive experience of SME development.

The seminar and workshops are being organised by the DED in co-ordination with the Future Leaders Training and Consultancy Centre of Belhoul Corporate Office.