We continue the conversation with Ismail Al Naqi, Director General at Free Zones Authority of Ajman, on the Tell Me Why podcast as he shares how Ajman is attracting more female entrepreneurs.
In the last 10 years we have seen tons of success stories about female entrepreneurs who began in the UAE, says Ismail
Ismail: In Ajman, about 20% of the business owners in our entire portfolio are women
Over the years, the percentage of female-owned businesses grew from 5% to 20%, says Ismail
Ismail: We are collaborating with different agencies to create special schemes to encourage more female entrepreneurs
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#UAEnews #podcast #ajman
In the last 10 years we have seen tons of success stories about female entrepreneurs who began in the UAE, says Ismail
Ismail: In Ajman, about 20% of the business owners in our entire portfolio are women
Over the years, the percentage of female-owned businesses grew from 5% to 20%, says Ismail
Ismail: We are collaborating with different agencies to create special schemes to encourage more female entrepreneurs
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV
#UAEnews #podcast #ajman
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NewsTranscript
00:00We are in the business. I am in the business of attracting foreign direct investment to come and set up businesses here in the UAE
00:07And what do we tell them? We tell them that the UAE is a
00:11Excellent stepping stone for the region. It's the ideal gateway for the region
00:17Right and the same thing goes to the entrepreneurs. Don't look at the business only within the UAE
00:24UAE is your gateway to the region. We are surrounded by a region that is emerging that is growing that is
00:33Dominated by young generation
00:38You have Africa, you have North Africa, you have the MENA region, you have the Asian subcontinent
00:44And the UAE is a supplier for this entire region. Yes
00:49so
00:50To broaden their horizon not only to focus on the market share here. The market share here is too competitive
00:58But their base is here and from here they're servicing the entire region
01:02I
01:16Really appreciate the point that you made that
01:18You join the entrepreneur in their journey through the painful and the joyous times
01:25And I think it's key because their success is your success
01:29I mean, it's a success for you to ease the process for entrepreneurs in turn that attracts more entrepreneurs that attracts more
01:38businesses and you see
01:40roots being
01:41grown into the city of Ajman for each business that opens up and that is a
01:48reward that cannot be I
01:50Mean it cannot be valued
01:53With if I mean in a financial manner, it's it's a reward that
01:58That highlights the city that really puts it on the map and
02:02I believe that it's I believe that every entrepreneur is looking for that the ease of operations the peace of mind
02:09the the trust that they can have with the authority, you know setting up their business and
02:17To be honest, I applaud you for for the efforts and and the help that you are offering these business owners
02:23These small business owners who are looking to make a future for themselves and for their families as well. Absolutely. I mean this is I mean
02:32This is why we are created, you know, we're created to create the right business environment for
02:39for micro businesses for entrepreneurs for SMEs for large businesses, this is the mandate from our leadership and and
02:47this is something not new to the
02:50To the country in general we we are always
02:53Encouraged to embrace excellence and everything that we do. We are always
03:00Demanded to take an extra step go one notch higher
03:08Because we aspire to be the best globally, you know, and this is as a country, you know to be the best is also
03:15Is it's in your DNA? It's in our DNA, but it is
03:21It's not an easy journey as well, of course, so
03:24so
03:25The end of the day all of us evolved together
03:28But then the role of the government in general is to create the right environment for the public
03:34We be it the business environment be public spaces be beaches
03:38Our role is as a custodian is to create the right atmosphere the right ambience the right environment the right climate the right
03:46regulatory framework
03:48Because as you might rightly mentioned their success is our success at the end of the day
03:53We are in the business of building a country. Absolutely
03:59So it's it's
04:01It's across
04:03It's a two-way stream, you know, it's a two-way stream. It's not a one-way stream
04:07Of course, you put it beautifully
04:10We're always one step ahead. I mean the UAE is always one step ahead and this is exactly why it is
04:17attracting investors and business owners even internationally on an international level and not just locally and
04:23That sets you apart that sets the country apart from everyone else
04:29so in terms of success rate
04:31Do you by any chance? Can you share with us with the success rate of businesses that have set up in Ajman?
04:38It's very hard to
04:40To give you an accurate data
04:43But there is a general there is a general formula that we follow all of us in the free zones
04:52Which we call basically the churn rate
04:55Okay, the longer basically the longer the companies last with you means that there's basically they're sustaining
05:02Right, you know
05:05As success might have different parameters for different individuals, you know, yes
05:13in general when when we look at the
05:17the average
05:19lifetime of companies within Ajman free zones if we
05:23If we drill down to Ajman free zone specifically, it's about 6.5 years, which is considered very reasonable
05:31Mm-hmm
05:33So this is the long if this is the duration now when we look at the churn rate
05:41based on the
05:44Latest intelligence that we have or the studies
05:48We are at 15%
05:52Which is considered above the industry rate
05:58Some of the some of our
06:01colleagues in different
06:05Different cities they're witnessing
06:0865%
06:10Retention and 35% churn rate
06:14So I would say that we we are we're doing pretty good. Yes term of retention
06:2085%
06:22and
06:25We hope that we can increase this to 90% but it's a
06:29It would require a lot of work and we're
06:34We're we're gonna plan for it and you're up for the challenge. We are
06:38That's always good to hear
06:40okay, so we mentioned at the beginning of the show that we met at the future women leaders forum by Gulf News and being she and
06:48we spoke about the importance of you know, female entrepreneurs and employees in the workforce and how
06:55Women have become a driving force for businesses
06:59locally, I mean the UAE has done a fantastic job with
07:05Women
07:06Implementation in the workforce and in the business
07:10industry
07:11and I just wanted to speak to you about like what are the efforts that the Ajman Free Zones Authority has been doing to
07:18Basically cater to women who either want to start a business or want to grow in a business
07:25you know
07:26the the topic of the of the woman and the woman contribution to the to the economy is
07:33something very significant and
07:36initiative like this is
07:39driven from the country agenda in general where we see
07:45Empowerment inclusivity and
07:48proactiveness and to
07:51Encouraging the
07:53Woman to be more active in in this domain and as we can see in the last 10 years
08:03We come across tons of successful stories
08:07of women entrepreneurs who
08:10Who started from the UAE and when the global?
08:16And if we zoom into Ajman
08:20I can proudly say that about 20% of the
08:24Business owners of the companies that we have of the entire portfolio are are women Wow
08:30and this again
08:32The growth that we have been seeing is that in the last five to seven years?
08:38It has grown from 5% to 15 but for a to 20% so 15% growth. Yes
08:46Is that enough no, it's not enough we need to do more and
08:52We we are conducting multiple
08:55Initiatives we are collaborating with multiple different agencies to
09:00to create special schemes for for women to
09:05Encourage them to become more
09:08More active in this domain see entrepreneurship
09:11Entrepreneurship
09:14Is a very tough journey
09:18It's a journey that is full of adventure full of risk and
09:28We need to
09:30We need to encourage more women to take a walk on the wild side
09:34I mean, what would you say though to women that that might be worried?
09:38I mean we spoke about the name of the show and I'm always about why
09:43Tell me why it's important to get women involved women come women women is half of the society
09:49You know women drives balance women brings different perspective, you know women brings different quality of creativity
10:01Women complete the picture, you know, so
10:06You can't have an
10:10Industries dominated by by just men, you know
10:16The the entrance of the
10:19woman entrepreneur
10:20And we've seen it in different industries has added great value created much more
10:26Created competition and competition brought the best of in each parties. Yes, you know
10:33And
10:35So so this is this is a natural answer the second thing
10:39This is the agenda of the of the United Arab Emirates as well
10:43and when we look at the global trends
10:49Maybe the UAE has is one of the most proactive
10:54countries in
10:56designing schemes to support women
10:58but I don't think we are still at the right numbers with the
11:04Our expectations as a country, yes
11:09But for the obvious reasons
11:13It is proven that women can do things differently, yes, absolutely
11:18I I know you mentioned this during the event as well. A woman is a mother is a
11:23Multitasker is someone that does, you know budgeting for for a house. So when she's in a professional
11:29Environment she can bring those skills in and they can benefit the business and I I absolutely loved that you brought that perspective in
11:37And women women they mold
11:41mold generations, yes
11:44If women if they are equipped with the business techniques
11:49They will ensure basically cascading it down to different generation molding future leaders. That's beautiful
11:57That's very beautiful
11:58I know you've been speaking since the morning and it has been an exhausting day
12:03So I won't take up more of your time, but before we you know, and our beautiful conversation
12:09Can you give future entrepreneurs or business owners any advice?
12:19You know my advice to go mainly to
12:22entrepreneurs and because you know, I
12:25Came across multiple stories in my life and
12:30The one advice that I would give the entrepreneur is
12:35Try to find the problem that you want to solve
12:39That's the most important thing, you know often we see that entrepreneurs are so much emotionally attached to their ideas
12:48And then they would create
12:50simulate success stories that are
12:53Detached from reality because they're emotionally attached to it
12:56so you they need to surround people with
12:59Be surrounded people who can be critical in a positive way on their ideas and to be accepted lightly
13:08to be surrounded with people who are positive who are
13:14Motivating them to give the best of what they have
13:19but then they need to
13:21Polish their characters to be able to be equipped to
13:27Lead this journey, which is full of challenges
13:31You know, they have to be persistent
13:34consistent, you know
13:36Determined, you know determined I will be successful
13:40I am gonna get there. I will get there, you know, so it becomes a belief, you know
13:47It's just a matter of time
13:50Some time you have to be ruthless, you know, absolutely, but of course you have always to have empathy. Yes
13:57and
14:00Finding the problem that you want to solve, you know will always
14:04ensure sustainability
14:06but the other piece of advice that I want to give to entrepreneurs who are gonna set up their
14:12businesses in the UAE
14:15We we often see that
14:19The business model that they embrace is different than that the business model of the UAE in general
14:25You know
14:26We are in the business. I am in the business of attracting foreign direct investment to come and set up businesses here in the UAE
14:33And what do we tell them? We tell them that the UAE is a
14:38Excellent stepping stone for the region. It's the ideal gateway for the region, right?
14:45And
14:46The same thing goes to the entrepreneurs. Don't look at the business only within the UAE
14:52UAE is your gateway to the region. We are surrounded by a region that is emerging that is growing that is
15:01Dominated by young generation
15:06You have Africa you have North Africa you have the MENA region you have the Asian subcontinent and
15:12The UAE is a supplier for this entire region. Yes, so
15:18To broaden their horizon not only to focus on the market share here. The market share here is too competitive
15:26But their base is here and from here they're servicing the entire region, of course
15:33And I wish them all the best
15:36Thank you. That's beautiful. I think that's a that's crucial for people to know you the UAE is very central
15:42It caters to so many, you know surrounding countries and regions and
15:48That is one of the greatest pieces of advice. I think I've heard from
15:53You know a business leader is that don't just limit yourself use the opportunity to expand
16:00Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you. It's my thank you very much for your time and we hope to bring you back to talk
16:07More wisdom. It's always a pleasure and thank you for having me. Thank you
16:12You