About the conference:

The Regional SME Finance Conference will maximize the coverage, quality and impact of SME Finance  in the Middle East & North Africa, by disemminating research, strategies, technological tools and best practices amongst donors, government agencies and financial institutions with an emphasis on fostering  inter-sector collaboration and the success of SMEs.

This will be the First Regional Conference focused on SME Finance.  At least 22 lecturers from over 14 countries will represent venerable institutions, such as the United Nations, ABN Amro, the International Finance Corporation, Blom Bank, USAID and Wells Fargo, Standard Chartered and the International Trade Centre of the United nations.   The audience will be primarily composed of 120-150 bankers, government and donor staff based in the MENA region. This is an optimal opportunity for the region's practitioners to have access to global best practices and emerging ideas and technology and to simultaneously create a forum for replicating and regionalizing said strategies in the Middle East & North Africa.  Special emphasis will be placed on innovation, i.e. the newest financial technological tools, variations on traditional private equity and venture capital structures as well as loan guarantees and leasing, and more tailored responsive product portfolios for the SME sector.

Topics:

- The Conference will address the following topics, as well as others:
- Regionalizing Service Models
- Marketing to SMEs
- Technological Tools  for Financial Operations
- Benchmarking various SME banking strategies
- Product Portfolio Development
- Competency as Collaterals
- Leasing as a medium of finance for SMEs 
- SME Loan Guarantees

Conference objectives:

This conference will accomplish the following:

- Educate global commercial banks about tailoring SME strategies to the region's economic, social and
  cultural realities
- Build capacity of local banks to attend the demands of local SMEs
- Share the best practices of global commercial banks with local banks
- Provide banks with instruction on risk assessment, technological tools, marketing and benchmarking
  strategies, business wdevelopment and portfolio tailoring
- Educate banks on leveraging donor support and public policy to better serve the SME sector
- Create greater dialogue, understanding and collaboration between donors, governments and banks for
  SME promotion