Abstract Book of the 11th International Conference on Advanced Research in Business, Management and Economics
Year: 2026
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Saudi Arabian Initiatives and Services for SMES To Recover from The Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond
Prof. Dr. Hassen Altalhi
ABSTRACT:
After Saudi Arabia removed the social distancing limitations imposed due to COVID-19, the markets were once again open for commercial activity. During the COVID-19 outbreak, Saudi Arabia’s development funds offered assistance to businesses that were hit by debts totaling more than SAR 6 billion by extending the grace period on existing loans and rescheduling new loans. The current study used secondary data for analyzing descriptive statistics between 2018 and 2021. During the second quarter of 2019, there was a total registration of about 547031 SMEs. The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has shown a considerable growth during the course of the subsequent year i.e., 2022. The analysis of the secondary data reveals that micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) got higher finance during 2018 to 2021. Credit facilities reached over 200 billion Saudi Riyals in the third quarter of 2021, which is an increase from 95 billion in 2018. Over the last three and a half years, credit facilities have more than doubled. According to the secondary data participation of men in SMEs has been more compared to that of women. However, in 2016 to 2022, this trend reversed and the involvement of men in SMEs went down while women participation increased gradually. Prioritizing small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) can boost women’s employment, lower unemployment, and raise their GDP contribution to 30% by 2030.
Keywords: Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMES), Micro, Small, And Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMES), Credit Facilities, COVID-19, Consequences, Innovation and Entrepreneurship