Miss

The Corporate Governance Code

For Small and Medium Enterprises

Building the foundations for

growth and sustainability

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The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or

all of this work without permission may be violation of applicable law. The Mohammed

Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development encourages dissemination of its work and

will grant permission to reproduce portions of the work. All queries on rights and licenses

should be addressed to:

Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development (Dubai SME)

P.O. Box 66166

TEL: +971 4 361 3000

FAX: +971 4 368 1000

Web: www.sme.ae

E-mail: info@sme.ae

Table of Contents

Forewords

01

Introduction & Background

03

Corporate Governance Defined

05

The Approach

06

Section A: Corporate Governance Policies and Procedures

09

Section B: Transparency and Shareholder Relations

13

Section C: Board of Directors

15

Section D: Control Environment

19

Section E: Stakeholder Relations

23

Section F: Family Governance

25

Appendix 1: Dubai SMEs Support Corporate Governance

27

Appendix 2: Acknowledgements

29

Appendix 3: About Dubai SME and Hawkamah

31

Foreword

dubai sme

01

Foreword by H.E. Sami Dhaen Al Qamzi

Director General, Department of Economic Development - Dubai

The small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector of Dubai

comprises 95% of the businesses, 42% of the workforce and

contributes to 40% of value add to the Dubai Economy. Dubai’s

reputation as a well-diversified economy also owes largely to the

SME sector.

The economy grows if SMEs grow. It is therefore vital that all

stakeholders of the economy – the government, banking and

finance community, the industry & business bodies and SME service

providers – collaborate to enable the growth and sustainability of

our SMEs.

One critical enabling factor for SME development is corporate...