Export Portal – A facilitator for UAE SMEs aiming to venture into foreign lands for trade

The largest exhibition of the world is coming to Dubai and the impressive boost that it has given to the small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is no secret. The Dubai Expo 2020, scheduled from October 2020 to April 2021, is expected to further revolutionize the already thriving SME sector that contributed an estimated 53 per cent to the UAE’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019, up from about 49 percent in 2018. 

The UAE aims to increase this contribution to 70 percent by 2021. SMEs account for 95 percent of registered businesses in the UAE and employ more than half of the entire labor force in the country. It is due to the enabling trade policies, the low-tax economic regime, and the proximity of the country to the West and the East corridors of the world that the SMEs love the UAE. However, it remains the fact that foreign trade is not a simple undertaking, even here.  

This is where Export Portal comes in. A comprehensive international trade hub, Export Portal is a blockchain-based platform that has been making the journey of SMEs into the global ecosystem safer, faster, and seamless. Whether it is the aim of venturing into foreign lands with your products or a plan of buying products from exotic locations, if you are a part of Export Portal, you’ll know that trade across borders and overseas was never this easy. 

Elsewhere in the world and similarly in the UAE, SMEs venturing into foreign lands for selling their products or buying products from overseas locations have to decode international laws, understand cross-country trade system, interpret the losses and the gains in sync with different currencies, and deal with many more challenges. One of the biggest problems faced by the UAE SMEs, according to the State of SMEs Study survey by Dubai SME, is a lack of affordable financing solutions, and high-interest rates charged by banks. The report says that as much as 65 percent of businesses are rejected for lending. 

International trade is daunting and tiresome, especially for SMEs. In many cases, some deserving business ideas never reach their full potential due to improper paperwork, which is usually a big challenge owing to the complexity of global trade. For the UAE SMEs, shipping, for example, remains one of the main pain points. A report that studied over 100 SMEs found that around 91 percent of the UAE SMEs face challenges in shipping. The report also stated that 73 percent of the SMEs in the UAE believe they need to export more, while 67 percent already prioritize export markets over home markets.

In such cases, a platform like Export Portal is a boon. A combination of a private blockchain system, with experts from across over 120 countries, and a commitment to help SMEs grow and flourish by overcoming international trade obstacles, make Export Portal an ideal pedestal for SMEs across sectors to conduct global business transactions. Register for free today!