Sharakah kicks off Istidama Programme

The Fund for Development of Youth Projects SAOC (Sharakah) announced the launch of the second edition of Istidama Programme for SMEs, powered by HSBC Bank Oman. The session was attended by Sameh al Wahaibi, Head of Communications & Corporate Sustainability, HSBC Bank Oman and Shaima al Lawatiya, Founder and Managing Director of Destination Sustainability along with the selected SMEs. The registration for the programme was open for one month for SMEs from all the governorates, and a total of 185 applications were received. The applications were filtered based on specific criteria, after which 10 SMEs were selected to join the programme this year. The selected SMEs were from diverse industries: Manufacturing 14 per cent, Service 46 per cent and Trading 40 per cent. The Istidama programme aims at evaluating the performance and the sustainability plans of the selected local SMEs (micro businesses) and drawing plans for improvement over a period of six months.