In an effort to ease up the repercussions of the economic crisis brought about by the coronavirus pandemic, the Entrepreneurs Association for Small and Medium Enterprises presented 14 demands to the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises Development on Sunday, an Arab daily reported.
Owners of small and medium-sized enterprises filed a 10-day deadline to the Fund to correct their situation in order to avoid it from worsening. The association demanded to calculate the grace period and payment separately, which consist of 3 years of grace period and 15 years of payment, and that the initiator is entitled to choose the number of years that suits the project. This is significant since Article 25 of the Fund’s Law stipulates that the financing be paid for no more than 15 years without mentioning the grace period. The demand stated that all prescribed financial payments are disbursed as the grace period is initiated and any requests for an increase in financing require additional grace periods.
In addition, the approval of increasing funding requests for initiators according to the project’s needs is within 45 days of the submission of the request in order to ensure the continuity and stability of the projects. Requests for funding should also open up to those whose application for increase was previously rejected on the pretext that the funding limit is KD 400,000.
Moreover, the importance of allowing the attendance of initiators on the evaluation committee to address inquiries was also included to ensure the continuity of projects and to clarify issues in order to avoid any minor delays in the transactions. Also noted was the need to bring back employees to their jobs and set up a strategy for project management and receipt by the fund, as well as, enable unsuccessful initiators to hand over projects until uncertainty factors are removed or liquidated.
The demands also included ensuring that the investment of the shop is parallel to the fund’s sponsorship period and not withdrawn before its expiry; handing over to the initiators the available industrial, commercial and agricultural land without delay; incubating industrial projects in the fund’s incubators until the lands are prepared; and, requesting authorities to allocate 10 percent of project owners as subcontractors.