SME sector growing

SME sector growing

The Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (ASMED) this year will launch a project to set up the National Center for Craft and Creative Industries in Sultan Haitham City in 10,000 square metres. It also said the SME sector in Oman is growing at a fast clip. This was revealed by the ASMED officials during a press conference in Muscat on Monday to review its accomplishments in 2023 and unveiled its initiatives of 2024 to support and empower small and medium enterprises (SMEs).Halima bint Rashid al Zareeyah, ASMED Chairperson, highlighted Oman’s huge leap in the Global Entrepreneurship Index to 11th spot in 2023-2024 from 38th position in 2022-2023. She thanked His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik for the Royal support for entrepreneurs and the government for its packages of incentives, facilities and exemptions. Al Zaree praised the ASMED officials, partners in the government and private sectors for scoring better raking. She also mentioned University of Nizwa’s research team’s inputs for the remarkable achievement.ASMED said the sector in Oman is witnessing progress at a rapid pace as the number of SMEs increased by 30 per cent in 2023 at 135,064 SMEs compared to 104,141 in 2022.The number of entrepreneurship