RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises, known as Monsha’at, is doubling down on its efforts to support the sector by providing SMEs access to large company supply chains. On the sidelines of the global entrepreneurship event Biban 2023 held in Riyadh, Abdulrahman Alotaibi, director of SMEs training at Monsha’at, told Arab News that the entity is focused on providing firms access to capital as well as sectors. “We provided a service called Vendor Qualification program. So, we qualified more than 1,000 small and medium sized companies to access the supply chain of big companies like SABIC, STC, Saudi Electrical Company and more recently Aramco as well,” Alotaibi told Arab News. He added that Monsha’at has been promoting local companies as well as facilitating large companies to allocate a part of their supply chains to the SME community. “One of the intents of putting together such an event is to promote business matchmaking, we believe that availing such services and enabling entrepreneurs from Saudi Arabia and from other countries to exhibit here at Biban will allow opportunities for business partnerships, for the flow of investments, and also for collaboration,” he said. FASTFACT Biban 2023 is set to provide entrepreneurs with opportunities to connect and expand their networks with policymakers and leaders from all over the world. The director added that connecting businesspeople from around the world with Saudi entrepreneurs will support Monsha’at’s goal to provide solutions and empowerment to the SME sector. Biban will also facilitate franchising as Alotaibi explained that the event will host a specific section just for local and international franchising opportunities. “We have the Franchise Door where we show business opportunities in franchising for local as well as international clients. So I strongly believe that we will have many business deals both locally and internationally,” he further added that there are 50 local and international brands participating in the event. “We will also have a special area for Business Matching where we invited more than 700 investors and entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas to investors from all over the world,” he added. Al-Otaibi stated that Biban will showcase more than 700 exhibitors as well as welcome 350 speakers with the event attracting the support of more than 120 local and international entities.