Fund for Development of Youth Projects, SAOC –“Sharakah” and HSBC Bank Oman SAOG announced the launch of the second edition of “Istidama” Program for SMEs.

The renewal of the program comes as a result of the successful completion of the first edition that was held last year and was funded by HSBC Bank Oman as part of its corporate sustainability agenda aiming to contribute to enhancing the role of SME’s in the economy.

Istidama program is managed and implemented by Sharakah in partnership with Destination Sustainability, a personalized consultancy firm in Corporate Sustainability and Social Responsibility. It brings together international best practices and global research and innovation with deep local expertise and regional cultural awareness in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability Systems and Impact Measurement.

Sharakah has signed a cooperation agreement Yesterday with Destination Sustainability for assessing the sustainability aspects of the business. The agreement was signed by Mr. Dinkar Kishor, Deputy General Manager at Sharakah, and Shaima Al Lawati, Founder and General Manager of Destination Sustainability.

The program aims to take the selected SMEs through an intensive evaluation of their business performance and sustainability practices including identifying areas of improvement, which will be executed over a period of 6 months.

This second edition of the program will build on the success of its first edition, which received a very good feedback from the participants and has proven success in helping the enrolled SMEs in improving the sustainability practices within their businesses.

The selected SMEs will undergo a holistic evaluation with a focus on Sustainability practices. The aim is to support SMEs to operate professionally and apply the best sustainability practices. It is worth mentioning that the applications received will be filtered and the participant will be selected by panel consisting of representative from Sharakah, HSBC Bank Oman and Destination Sustainability.

On the occasion, Shaima Al Lawati, Founder and General Manager of Destination Sustainability, commented saying: “We are pleased to collaborate with HSBC Bank Oman and Sharakah for the second time to participate in implementing the Istidama program. Through our role in this program, we seek to evaluate the commercial projects of the participating SMEs to gain a deeper understanding of the SMEs business status and positioning in regards to the sustainability aspects that include human rights, labor practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, and community involvement and development. We then shall propose areas of development as we believe in the role of these small and medium enterprises in contributing to sustainable environmental, social and economic development of Oman and their effects through socially responsible behavior.”

Nabiha Al Mandhari, Marketing Specialist at Sharakah further commented “We encourage SMEs to utilize the opportunity to be part of the program for the sustainability of their businesses, registration is now open to all existing SMEs from all around Oman. Interested SME can register from: http://hsbc.sharakah.om.

All interested candidates should fill the form with accuracy and authenticity information about the business before January 3, 2021.”