Small and middle-sized companies (SMEs) make up more than 95 per cent of businesses in the UAE and contribute more than 60 per cent of the country’s non-oil GDP. But despite that, the UAE still has relatively few SMEs growing up to become large private companies. Founders have been saying that starting a business is much easier than scaling one, and in some cases, even easier than closing one. As businesses grow, they tend to encounter the same roadblocks. Access to growth financing can be difficult, delayed payments create cash flow pressure, and operational complexity can take focus away from growth. Many SMEs also struggle to compete with larger players for contracts and talent. So, while the UAE has built a strong start-up culture, the next challenge is helping more of those businesses grow into sustainable midsized companies. In this episode of Business Extra, host Salim A Essaid is looking at what is holding businesses back once they move beyond the start-up phase. And what needs to change for more UAE-founded companies to become long-term regional and global success stories? He speaks with two guests approaching this challenge from very different angles. Karolos Travassaros, chief portfolio officer at the Emirates Growth Fund, who explains the concept of the missing middle and what patient, minority capital can do to help SMEs cross that gap and become national champions. Jen Blandos, founder and chief executive of Female Fusion, a UAE-based community of women entrepreneurs, also joins to speak from 17 years of experience as a business owner in the UAE about the structural frustrations that may hold SMEs back.

Syria is becoming part of the economic conversation again. Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of talk about investment and reconstruction, from the first Syrian-Emirati Investment Forum to upcoming business events in Damascus for the private sector in early June, and even discussions in Washington about Syria's economic future. UAE officials and business delegations have met the Syrian leadership, and Gulf investors are studying projects tied to logistics, housing and industrial development. But beyond these announcements, the reality on the ground remains extremely difficult. The country is dealing with damaged infrastructure, banking restrictions and a struggling economy after more than a decade of war. Millions of Syrians still rely on humanitarian aid, and the UN's World Food Programme recently warned it is scaling back some operations due to funding shortfalls. In this episode of Business Extra, host Salim A Essaid speaks to Jamal Almahamid, chief executive of Palmira Software House, live from Damascus, where he attended the Syrian-Emirati Investment Forum. Mr Almahamid describes a country where the energy and optimism among investors is real, but where banking restrictions, infrastructure gaps and the need for clearer regulations mean serious investors will need patience and a long-term vision.

The UAE's decision to leave Opec is the biggest exit the organisation has faced since 1960. As the group's third-largest producer and one of the few members with real spare capacity, the departure of the Emirates raises urgent questions about the future of global oil markets and the organisation that has shaped them for decades. This comes at a critical moment. The Iran war is escalating, the Strait of Hormuz is under pressure and Aramco is warning that the market has already lost about one billion barrels. Analysts say it could take until well into next year for the situation to fully recover. In this episode of Business Extra, host Salim A Essaid speaks with Amena Bakr, head of Middle East and Opec+ insights at Kpler, about what the UAE's exit means, whether other members could follow suit and whether the old Opec model still works in a more fragmented world.

As global supply chains face sustained disruption, the UAE is pressing ahead with a plan to build sovereign AI infrastructure, technology and data that the country can control without relinquishing intellectual property to foreign providers. In this week's Business Extra, recorded at Making it in the Emirates in Abu Dhabi, host Salim A Essaid speaks to the executives behind a deal finalised in March, in which UAE-based sovereign AI company Aleria won a major agreement with Nvidia to use advanced AI infrastructure in the UAE, beginning with thousands of Blackwell Ultra chips. Eric Leandri, chief executive of Aleria, Marc Domenech, vice president of Enterprise at Nvidia for the Middle East, North Africa and South Europe, and Paul Bloch, co-founder of data intelligence platform DDN, explain why sovereign AI is critical for the most sensitive areas of a country's digital operations, from healthcare and financial systems to government data and defence, and why investment in the sector is increasing in defiance of the geopolitical climate.

The UAE property market has been one of the strongest stories in the sector globally over the past few years, with record transactions, rising prices and huge numbers of international buyers. What makes the Emirates unique is not just the growth but its ability to recover quickly from downturns, attract global capital and reinvent itself through policy and positioning. But over the past few weeks, something unprecedented has happened. After the US-Israeli war on Iran started in late February, and Tehran's subsequent attacks on the UAE and other Gulf countries, transaction volumes fell by about 37 per cent year on year – and almost 50 per cent month on month in the first 12 days of March – according to Goldman Sachs. Some sellers are already cutting prices by 10 to 15 per cent just to close deals, and ValuStrat reported a 5.9 per cent decline in Dubai property prices last month. It is the first significant downturn in the UAE property market since its rise after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and one that is geoeconomically motivated. In this live-recorded episode of Business Extra, host Salim A Essaid is joined by five experts to help make sense of it all: Mario Volpi, senior vice president of investment advisory at Allegiance Real Estate; Andrew Cummings, head of residential agency in the Middle East at Savills; Matthew Green, lead researcher at CBRE Mena; Rakesh Mavath, founder and chief executive of Takeem; and Louis Harding, chief executive of betterhomes. They discuss whether this is just a short-lived shock or the first real signs of a slowdown after several years of growth, what it means for people who have invested in the UAE property market, what could happen to rent prices as people seek more affordability, and whether distress sales are actually happening.

In a matter of weeks, energy supply shocks sent oil prices up by 30 per cent, fuel costs surged to record highs, and the ripple effects hit everything from inflation and global growth to household bills. The International Monetary Fund has warned of one of the sharpest six-month economic downturns in the Middle East since the 2008 financial crisis. But the larger question is not just what happened. It is whether it had to be this bad. Could this crisis have been less severe if more countries had invested earlier in renewables and built a more distributed energy system? That's what host Salim A Essaid explores in this episode of Business Extra, recorded from Washington. Salim spoke to Robbie Orvis, senior director of modelling and analysis at energy policy think tank Energy Innovation. Mr Orvis examines whether the scale of this crisis will finally prompt a more durable global shift in clean energy investment, and what that shift might look like over the next six to 12 months. Salim also spoke to Mary Rose de Valladares, clean energy expert and non-executive director at Atome, one of the world's first green fertiliser producers, who traces why the transition to distributed renewables has moved in cycles since the 1970s and where that process genuinely stands today.

This year's IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington are unlike any in recent memory. The Iran war has given the annual gathering a geopolitical charge that has drawn an unusually broad crowd, not just the traditional ministers of trade, investment and finance, but foreign policy officials and venture capital executives from across the globe. In this episode of Business Extra, host Salim A. Essaid travels to Washington to speak to some of those attending about what they are looking for and how they are feeling about the state of the global economy. We hear from Mohamed Soliman, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, who spoke about how this year's theme is uncertainty. The episode also features The National's Washington business correspondent Kyle Fitzgerald, who breaks down the IMF briefings, explaining why this is being described as a textbook supply shock, which countries and regions face the steepest downgrades and what the IMF is advising governments to do in the short term. Nicolas Veron, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, also joins Salim to examine whether the resilience highlighted in the IMF's outlook is being labelled too generously, whether markets are underpricing the risk of a global recession in the next 12 to 18 months and what those attending can realistically take away from a week of conversations in Washington.

The economic fallout from the Iran war extends well beyond oil markets and is beginning to be felt in consumers' daily lives. With transport and production costs rising, food prices are beginning to climb globally and airline tickets are already more expensive. Analysts are anticipating that much of the inflationary impact has not hit consumers yet. For Gulf economies, the question is whether strong non-oil sectors can stand the pressure. Globally, the stakes are higher still, with leading financial voices warning that a prolonged conflict could tip the world into recession. In this episode of Business Extra, host Salim A Essaid is joined by Amro Zakaria, global financial markets strategist and founding partner of Kyoto Network and Madarik Ventures, to examine the industries under strain and the inflationary risks building beneath the surface.

In this special episode of Business Extra, host Khaled Abuljebain sits down with Yan Martin Nufer, chief financial officer of Abu Dhabi-based Borouge, to explore how one of the region’s industrial giants is driving long-term value through innovation, technology and strategic expansion. From delivering one of the largest IPOs in the UAE to returning more than $15.5 billion in dividends, Borouge has positioned itself at the forefront of the global materials sector. Mr Nufer explains how Borouge’s proprietary technology is shaping next-generation materials, improving product durability, efficiency and sustainability across applications from medical devices to advanced packaging and energy systems. The conversation also looks ahead to the Borouge 4 plant in Al Ruwais, a $6.2 billion mega-project nearing completion, and how next-generation manufacturing platforms are expanding the company’s capabilities to serve global demand. Mr Nufer also discusses the company’s global ambitions, including potential expansion into China, and the broader vision behind building a more resilient, globally integrated materials business. Borouge is a UAE-based petrochemicals company that produces advanced plastics used across industries from health care and infrastructure to energy and manufacturing. Formed through a partnership between Adnoc and Borealis, it combines access to energy resources with cutting-edge materials technology, supplying high-performance products to global markets.

Leading executives from the world’s most influential energy companies are gathered in Houston for CERAWeek, often described as the industry's Super Bowl, as the Iran war rattles global markets. The conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran has disrupted supplies and raised concern over the stability of key routes such as the Strait of Hormuz. In this special live-recorded episode of Business Extra, host Salim A Essaid looks at how one of the most important international energy gatherings is unfolding in the shadow of war. Reinforcing a sense that this is not business as usual, major industry leaders, including Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser and the head of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Sheikh Nawaf Al Sabah, have withdrawn from in-person appearances. At the same time, oil markets are reacting sharply to developments on the ground. Prices have surged on fears of disruption, then pulled back on signals of potential de-escalation, highlighting how geopolitics is driving sentiment as much as fundamentals. In this episode Robin Mills, chief executive of Qamar Energy, The National's Kyle Fitzgerald – reporting from CERAWeek, geoeconomics editor Manus Cranny and assistant business editor Jennifer Gnana discuss what all this means for energy markets, industry decision-making and the broader global economy.