Small and medium-size enterprises could be the big winners of Expo 2020, as opportunities in a number of sectors open up, analysts have said.
The boom in tourism will drive flocks of new consumers to the emirate, with the Dubai Chamber expecting 245,000 new jobs to be added in the sector by 2023. Hotel rooms are expected to double by 2020, while capital investment in the tourism sector looks set to grow to Dh143 billion by 2023, the chamber said.
“Construction and tourism businesses are expected to thrive,” said David Harris, the marketing director at the insurance firm RSA. But “considerable strides will [also] need to be made in other industries such as food and beverage, waste disposal management, transportation and goods suppliers to accommodate over 20 million visitors over the next six years”, he said.
This is also creating opportunities for SMEs in the IT sector, experts said.
“Start-up ideas in the IT sector could benefit and largely contribute to the Expo 2020,” said Saer Imad, who works on enterprise development at the Khalifa Fund. And this sector is attractive to regional financiers, who are keen to support “businesses in fast growing sector such as IT and e-commerce where business growth is fast”, he said.
Hari Kesavan, the founder of the entrepreneurship consultancy Unipropitia, said: “[The] software and services area can make a global impact without having to move around physical goods.”
But obstacles remain to starting individual business in the country.
Costs have grown, according to Mr Imad. “We can easily notice the increase in costs for start-up, especially in the last two years – mainly rent, fittings and decoration, new government fees and slight wage increases.”
And Mr Harris said that growth in inflation could hit SMES. “[Inflation] is expected to have an adverse effect on the cost for starting up a business in the UAE due to high rental demands and employee needs for a higher salary scales,” he said.
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