The recently released data by the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry, SCCI, showed that the number of the new memberships of the SCCI has remarkably increased in 2019, reaching 5626 members.

While the total number of memberships movement in the main branch and other branches of the SCCI in Al Dhaid, Khor Fakkan, Dibba, and Kalba reached 58,984 members.

2019: Impressive Achievements

In this respect, HE Abdullah Sultan Al Owais, Chairman, SCCI, said: “The year 2019 had an impressive record of achievements, where a number of important meetings were held in many countries around the world and with government institutions and representatives of the private sector and businessmen, as well as meetings with representatives of diplomatic missions and official figures, amounting to 53 missions.

Also, 6 trade and economic forums were organized with various countries worldwide, as well as 19 internal and external participations organized by the SCCI’s Sharjah Exports Development Center.

“The value of exports and re-exports which reached 30 billion dirhams in 2019 and the issuance of nearly 92,000 certificates of origin reflects the strength of the Sharjah economy and the vital role of the SCCI in supporting domestic product through its initiatives and its keenness to develop sectors and raise its productivity and investments,”

Foreign Missions & Conferences

HE Mohammad Ahmed Amin Al-Awadi, SCCI’s Director-General, said: “The efforts of the SCCI and its partners working as teamwork under the umbrella of Sharjah Government and its strategy have led to enhancing the participation of various economic activities, through a bundle of initiatives and events launched by the SCCI in 2019. The SCCI has managed to develop its economic relations and cooperation and promote trade and investment exchange with dozens of officials, countries, organizations, ambassadors, consuls, and heads of chambers of commerce and economic institutions worldwide.”

Among the most prominent missions organized by the SCCI, last year were its trade missions to Uganda, Kenya, Moscow and St. Petersburg, while it received delegations from Brazil, Australia, Poland, Korea, Ronda, Egypt, Morocco, Tajikistan, India, and others.

On a similar note, the SCCI organized a number of successful festivals and shows in 2019 in various regions of the emirate of Sharjah, most notably were “Sharjah Summer Promotions”, “Sharjah Spring Promotions”, and the 4th edition of Al Dhaid Dates Festival.

The Business Sectoral Groups operating under the SCCI umbrella participated and organized more than 26 diverse activities during 2019, based on knowledge, development, and support of the economic activity and local products in Sharjah to penetrate international markets.

The application of the Business Sectoral Groups “BG” has been completed by 85%, which is used to ease communication between members of those groups, in terms of checking minutes of the meetings, various events, following up on recommendations, with the aim of converting the Groups’ procedures entirely into 100% electronic.

Knowledge Management

As for the knowledge management, the SCCI, in 2019, has presented a study of the market growth index, to measure the level of satisfaction through 3 studies focused on the SCCI’s employees, society and partners, where 65 questionnaires were distributed to evaluate the SCCI services and activities.

in the same context, 3 events were held to spread culture and knowledge, in addition to organizing 5 field visits to multiple parties to learn about best practices and discuss ways of cooperation, as well as holding 5 meetings with educational institutions to provide the SCCI with the necessary research and market studies.

Bolstering SME Projects

As part of the SCCI’s efforts to motivate young people to establish their own SME projects to enhance the economic benefits and achieve sustainable development in Sharjah, the SCCI launched “Tijarah 101”, the first of its kind center locally and regionally to empower entrepreneurs from the young people, by developing and improving the business environment in the small and medium enterprises, raising production efficiency, and promoting and marketing entrepreneurial projects.

The SCCI’s Small & Medium Enterprises Center took part in 10 various activities, including the SME Expo 2019 in Abu Dhabi, the Second Forum for Arab Entrepreneurs, Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival 2019, in addition to organizing a workshop on the franchise industry and “Tawasul Forum” in cooperation with the Khalifa Fund to introduce the products and services provided by the Fund.

Member Services

With respect to the member services, the SCCI has stepped up its services for the members and streamlined the membership procedure, adopting a smart trend. This led to reducing the steps, time, and effort needed for obtaining the Chamber membership.

The SCCI has also achieved the third and fourth phases of smart connectivity with the Sharjah Economic Development Department, in additional to launching a series of initiatives, such as Burak Initiative (a robot to print the certificate of origin), printing the certificates of origin from companies ’offices, the remote work initiative, and the distinguished service initiative by entering information instead of the customer, as well as the continuation of work by the “Contact – We Reach “initiative.

While the Transactions Report of the Member Services Sector in 2019 showed that the number of membership renewals reached 53718, the total number of free zones memberships reached 2139, the number of certificates of origin reached 83396, the total number of remote transactions 26620, the total number of the robot-printed certificates of origin 25585, while the number of office-printed certificates of origins reached 26,880 certificates.

Community Responsibility

And as part of the SCCI’s keenness to back the private sector enterprises in Sharjah and empower them to strengthen their performance and business growth, the SCCI organized the “Sharjah Excellence Award” with the participation of 62 participants, among which 17 have won the various awards. The Sharjah Excellence Award is an EFQM-based award and is dedicated to large and small and medium enterprises. The EFQM (Excellence Model of the European Foundation for Quality Management) is a universal management framework used by more than 30,000 companies worldwide to support business owners in carrying out the quality model.

On a different note and as part of the SCCI’s eagerness to reinforce concepts of community responsibility, the Chamber has received a lot of awards in 2019, more importantly, the Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance and the Sharjah Award for Excellence and Educational Excellence. While the SCCI’s nursery won the Best Government Nursery Award within the Sharjah Award for Excellence and Educational Excellence.

This is in addition to accrediting the SCCI as a mother-and-child-friendly institution and distinguished work of the SCCI’s investment and development office, including the opening of the new Expo Al Dhaid Center, the opening of a multi-storey building for vehicles near the Expo Center Sharjah, and the opening of the 4-star “Novotel hotel”, Sharjah.