Inma hosts former Irish PM at SME forum

A small and medium enterprises (SME) forum featuring former Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny took place yesterday in Muscat.

The 3rd Leadership and Management forum was organized by the Omani Academy for Small and Medium Enterprises, and addressed various financial issues within the SME sector.

At the event, the chief guest Enda Kenny shared some of his experiences during his tenure as Prime Minister following the 2008 recession.

“After many years of success in creating jobs and building up a strong economy and building a strong reputation, we lost control of our economy following the, the global recession," he recalled.

“...we had disastrous consequences. We were blocked out of all the international money markets, interest rates were 15 per cent, unemployment was 15.5 per cent. Our national integrity and our reputation were shattered. The construction sector collapsed completely. A hundred thousand construction workers went back to Poland and Lithuania and Latvia, banks were nationalized with hundreds of thousands of people with serious mortgage difficulties as a consequence, thousands of businesses closed down." According to Kenny, job creation was one of Ireland’s highest priorities.

“To create jobs was one of the, was one of the fundamental issues that we had to deal with after the recession... My intention was to make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business. And from that perspective, we put together a whole series of things from [the] government level to support ideas, initiatives, and innovation. "

“And in that sense that you sent out a message that you were open for business, that young people would have the opportunity to set up their companies and do their thing in their way and move on from that,” the former PM noted.

In his talk, Kenny discussed various topics such as the importance of financial management in ensuring sustainability, managing budgets and resources, and investments. It was followed by a panel discussion on financial resources, investment leadership, and fintech trends.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (Inma) was established in 2014 to support the SME sector in the country through entrepreneurial development, financing, nurturing and legitimizing. In 2019, Inma established the Oman Academy for SMEs to provide entrepreneurs with the necessary skill sets to succeed.