Planning Ministry Holds 15th Meeting to Advance Preparations for Fourth Arab Summit on SMEs
The Ministry of Planning held its 15th meeting of the committee formed under a Council of Ministers’ order to oversee preparations for the Fourth Arab Summit on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
The meeting was chaired by the Ministry’s Technical Undersecretary, Maher Hamad Johan, with the participation of committee members and supporting entities.
The session began with a review of the minutes of the 14th meeting and the comments submitted by committee members, before the minutes were approved. The negotiation team then presented the outcomes of its discussions with the project’s organizing company, along with its financial offer and the reductions achieved in the overall cost.
The committee decided to invite representatives of the organizing company for direct discussions to finalize the items and provisions subject to further reductions, while confirming the decisions of the preparatory committee and the ESCWA team.
The media committee also presented its observations and proposals regarding the media components of the financial offer, in preparation for approving the project’s final promotional plan.
On the financial side, the committee followed up on procedures to open an account with the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) as part of the requirements for implementing the project. The sponsors committee also reviewed the outcomes of its second sponsors conference for private colleges and discussed preparations for a third sponsors conference targeting banks.
The meeting further reviewed correspondence addressed to international organizations and agencies, including the World Bank, the United Nations and the European Union, as well as Korean, Japanese and German agencies.
The technical committee concluded the meeting by presenting an update on the number of local and international registrants and their classification across startups, projects, media companies and professionals, as well as experts.
Participants stressed the importance of continuing regular meetings to finalize the remaining files and ensure the project is launched according to the scheduled timeline, with the attendance of several directors general and representatives of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, the ministries of Planning, Trade, Agriculture, Labor, and Youth and Sports, in addition to the National Investment Authority and the Federation of Iraqi Chambers of Commerce.
