Expo 2020 Dubai awarded Dh6.8 billion ($1.8bn) worth of contracts to small and medium businesses, exceeding a 2016 commitment to award at least 20 per cent of direct and indirect spend to them.
The amount represents more than a quarter of all Expo 2020 Dubai contracts in terms of value, organisers of the event said in a statement.
Among the 3,245 contracts, 66 per cent, or 2,150, were SMEs, including 1,390 local businesses, the report published in The National reported. Overall, suppliers from outside the UAE were sourced from 94 countries.
“Our commitment to SMEs has been embedded into our planning since the very beginning of our wo rld Expo journey,” Mukhtar Safi, chief financial officer and deputy chief executive of Expo 2020 Dubai, said. The SME sector represents more than 94 per cent of the total companies in the UAE and employs more than 86 per cent of the private sector workforce, a Dubai Chamber report released in November 2020 showed.—APP
