Dubai – Mubasher: Lacking of talented and experienced employees, along with funding difficulties and the negative economic outlook represent the main challenges facing the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the GCC, according to a new report by Pearl Initiative.
The new report, entitled "Driving Value from Good Corporate Governance", is based on the findings of a survey regarding the corporate governance’s state in over than 1,000 MSMEs across the GCC and challenges they face, Pearl Initiative stated.
About 89% of respondents said that they were planning to raise capital in the next one or two years, despite the sluggish economic growth, while approximately 50% affirmed the existence of corporate governance documents in their firms, the Gulf business–led organization added.
Pearl Initiative’s report showed that MSMEs were facing big challenges, including business reputation, financial performance, ethics and social responsibility, which are considered significant factors in attracting investors and long-term funding.
“Through our discussions with business leaders from MSMEs, we have sought to understand the challenges they face and to identify the best ways of addressing them,” said Carla Koffel, executive director at the Pearl Initiative.
“Based on our conversations and the report’s findings, we also recommend that the MSME community develop and adopt baseline governance capabilities that can be scaled up as needed to meet their evolving business needs,” Koffel added.
As for the current state of governance within MSMEs, the report found that 59% of businesses have a board supporting the implementation of good governance practices, while 71% of respondents revealed that their boards’ chairpersons are mostly the companies’ CEOs.
