The Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) held yesterday at its headquarters a forum on the “Best Practices for Sharjah Excellence Award”. The event comes as part of SCCI’s keenness on further enhancing the effective partnership with various business sectors towards the implementation of the highest quality standards and consolidation of the culture of excellence.

The forum shed light on a number of topics, the most important of which is introducing the services of the National Program for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, highlighting the best practices in the field of local and international institutional excellence and the best practices of the Sharjah Excellence Award winners, especially the winners in the category of Emerging Projects and Entrepreneurs.

Present at the meeting were Maryam Saif Al Shamsi, Assistant General Director, Support Services Sector, SCCI, Abdul Aziz Shattaf, Assistant General Director, Members Services Sector, SCCI, Nada Al Hajri, General Coordinator of the Sharjah Excellence Award, Dr. Adeeb Al Afeefi, Director, National Program for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Dr. Laila Al Jassmi, Founder & CEO, Health Beyond Borders.

The forum also witnessed the participation of a large number of government and private sector representatives, corporate directors, institutional excellence experts, emerging entrepreneurs, and university students.

Organizing Entirely New Edition

In her speech on behalf of HE Mohamed Ahmed Amin, SCCI’s Director-General, Nada Al Hajri, General Coordinator of the Sharjah Excellence Award, said: “The Best Practices Forum of the Sharjah Excellence Award is one of the fundamentals of the Award, in addition to being the annual starting point towards organizing an entirely new edition. Our aim is to maintain the leading role of the Sharjah Excellence Award in launching qualitative initiatives to enhance the culture of quality and excellence, as they are the foundations of the economic prosperity and sustainable development at Sharjah and UAE level.”

Al Hajri added: “Since its launch in 2002 as one of the SCCI’s initiatives, the Award aimed at widely spreading the institutional governance, encouraging the adoption of quality standards and work ethics, stimulating environment-friendly practices and reinforcing the role of economic institutions in advancing the sustainable development through the provision of various facilities, as well as launching new projects and initiatives.”

Boosting the Level of Work Mechanisms

In turn, Abdul Aziz Shattaf, Assistant General Director, Members Services Sector, SCCI, said: “The Sharjah Excellence Award has witnessed a constant development in its journey to implement the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and adopt comprehensive strategies to improve the institutional performance in accordance with the highest international standards.”

“The new identity of the Award, launched in 2016, has formed a broader umbrella comprising the entire sectors of the economic community. Moreover, the Sharjah Excellence Award covers several aspects of the work of the economic establishment departments and plays a key role in fostering the level of work mechanisms, in addition to improving the enterprises performance, upgrading their services, boosting the quality and efficiency of their products and enhancing their position in the market,” added Shattaf.

He further continued: “This annual forum is a good opportunity to pay tribute to the partners of the SCCI and the Award. It also constitutes an adequate chance to discuss and explore the best practices in quality management domain and its positive impact on the economic enterprises business, due to the strategic dimension of quality management in promoting comprehensive economic development.”

The participants reviewed the best practices of Emirati Entrepreneurs, including Dr. Laila Al Jassmi, the Founder and CEO of Health Beyond Borders, who spoke about her leading experience and the most important challenge she faced upon launching her business.

While Dr. Adeeb Al Afeefi, Director, National Program for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, shed light on the role of the program in launching diverse plans and initiatives targeting entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium-sized emerging projects.

At the end of the forum, Maryam Saif Al Shamsi honored the speakers and strategic partners including, the National Program for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, the Sharjah Business Women Council (SBWC), Sharjah for Capacity Development, the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, and the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Foundation.

In the same context, a number of Sharjah Excellence Award winners were honored including, Sheikh Majid Al Qasimi, Q-Cafe project owner; Sanadiah Ibrahim, Fouj Town project owner and Abid Al Marashdeh, owner of Union Services for Businessmen project.