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The 60^th annual International Council for Small Business World Conference (ICSB 2015), hosted by the College of Business and Economics at the United Arab Emirates University, continued its second day on the morning of Sunday 7^th June, 2015 in the Sheikh Maktoum Hall at the Dubai World Trade Center. The keynote speaker on the second day was His Excellency Abdullah Saeed Al Darmaki, CEO of the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development.

Mr. Al Darmaki said that the UAE supports entrepreneurship, businesses and initiatives that foster innovation and sustainable growth in small to medium-sized enterprises. It does so at more than just the local level. Hosting this world economic event is evidence of the UAE’s vision and its support for small to medium-sized enterprises. It also signifies the creation of a business environment suitable for the growth of such enterprises.

He went on to say that the Khalifa Fund is a strategic partner of UAEU with whom they work together in order to achieve a vision of leadership, promote entrepreneurship and initiative and enhance the competitiveness of small to medium-sized enterprises by helping them to grow. This, in turn, creates a generation of entrepreneurs, and cultivates investment among citizens. The Khalifa Fund provides comprehensive programs that meet the needs of investors while seeking to establish or expand investment.

Professor Mohamed Albaili, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, said that the university is proud to host this international conference and bring together academic and economic experts and students in order to seek information and pursue excellence. Through this economic conference UAEU, as a leading research university, seeks research solutions to problems at local, regional and international levels. It exerts constant efforts, from researchers and faculty, to conduct studies in a variety of fields and aims to contribute to an increase in knowledge and humanitarian research.

Professor Mohamed Albaili added that the university is looking forward to providing recommendations and conclusions, by the end of the conference, for the development of small and medium enterprises. The vision of the conference is to develop entrepreneurship and he called on all those participating in the conference to view the UAE’s experience in the field of development and its support of small and medium enterprises as a global economic model that deserves attention.