Page 379 - MOE ENGLISH PR - MAY 2024

In her statements to the Emirates News Agency (WAM) on the sidelines of the
event, Badreya Al Maidoor, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Support Services
Sector at the Ministry of Economy, said that the Programme, in cooperation with
EWA, is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Economy to promote gender
equality and empower women in various economic activities.

She noted that the initiative encourages them to establish new entrepreneurial
projects that contribute to enhancing the state's economic development. The
programme had 200 applicants, of which 17 companies qualified and presented
their products, innovations, and creative ideas.

She said that eight out of the 17 companies received funding opportunities from
investors who attended the company presentations.

She explained that this initiative aims to encourage the establishment of new
entrepreneurial projects that enhance economic development in the country and
strengthen women's essential skills to attract investments and financing.

She said that the programme provides direct and specialised learning
opportunities through training courses that cover the main aspects of establishing
and developing start-ups that meet the unique needs of female entrepreneurs.

Yulia Stark, Founder and President of the European Women's Association
(EWA), said that over the past three years, the focus has been on building
bridges between female entrepreneurs in Europe and the UAE. After many trade
missions, they cooperated with the UAE Ministry of Economy to support
institutions to obtain financing.

"Access to financing remains a challenge for female entrepreneurs, and therefore
the EWA Accelerator provides a direct solution to this challenge by providing
financial support and vital ecosystem partnerships,” she highlighted.

She pointed out that supporting female entrepreneurs in obtaining financing is
what they have been doing for the past decade, and this is what they are doing in
the UAE to expand across the UAE to other Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

She described the role of the UAE Ministry of Economy as "comprehensive,
including communicating and cooperating with 100 companies."

Daria Vasilyeva, Founding Partner of EWA Accelerator, told WAM that the
project was launched to support women and female entrepreneurs seeking
investments over the next six to nine months. With that in mind, among 200 start-
ups, they selected many that could participate in the program to be more
investment-ready. In the end, the top 17 companies were selected.

https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/other/top-17-companies-in-investment-readiness-
acceleration-programme-for-women-entrepreneurs-announced/ar-BB1mZIwj?ocid=BingNewsSerp