Salah Eldin Mazen Al-Ajla Economic Researcher
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Articles

Articles

Articles, practical guides and case studies — written closer to practice than to the academic paper.

Article

Innovative Financing in a Multipolar World: Toward a New Model for Economic Resilience

In a multipolar world, traditional financing alone is no longer enough to support economic diversification. A look at innovative financing tools — from blended finance to results-based financing — and the changing role of development banks.

SME Finance 11 min read
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Article

Why Isn't Financing Alone Enough to Support SME Growth?

Financing addresses a liquidity shortage, not a weak business model. Why does a well-financed venture fail, and what does it actually need alongside money to turn a loan into sustainable growth?

SME Finance 6 min read
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Article

Digital Security for SMEs: From Operational Cost to Growth Investment

Digital security is no longer a purely technical matter for SMEs — it is now an economic factor shaping business continuity, customer trust, and access to financing.

SME Finance 8 min read
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Article

Qatar's Targets for Venture Capital and Building a Startup Ecosystem by 2030

An analytical look at Qatar's venture capital ecosystem: its 2020–2024 performance, the Third National Development Strategy's 2030 targets, existing structural gaps, and comparative lessons from Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

Development & Gulf Economies 10 min read
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Article

Resource Misallocation: Does Supporting SMEs Harm Productivity?

Supporting SMEs can harm aggregate productivity if designed as permanent, general support for firms simply because they are small — but it can raise productivity if it addresses a specific market failure. The question isn't whether to support SMEs, but which ones, and under what conditions.

Development Economics 10 min read
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Article

FinTech: A Solution or a Contextual Illusion for SME Financing?

An analysis of FinTech's effect on SME financing in the Arab world, and why its results remain conditional on institutional quality and digital infrastructure rather than the technology alone.

SME Finance 5 min read
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Article

The Evolution of Opportunity Costs of Desalinated Water in the GCC: 1990–2025

An analysis of how the opportunity cost of desalinating water in the Gulf states evolved between 1990 and 2025: from the dominance of thermal technologies to the rise of reverse osmosis and solar desalination, and why energy-pricing reform has become a fiscal necessity rather than a technical option.

Energy & Markets 6 min read
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Article

How Has the Middle East War Affected Oil Exporters and Importers?

The oil shock from the Middle East war is not uniform in its impact: a look at how a country's position as a net oil importer or exporter, combined with its sovereign credit rating, determines the economic burden it bears.

Energy & Markets 12 min read
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Article

The Missing Middle or the Hidden Middle?

A re-reading of the 'missing middle' phenomenon in Arab economies: are medium-sized firms genuinely absent from the economic fabric, or do they exist but sit hidden outside the reach of statistical measurement?

Development Economics 6 min read
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Article

Moral Hazard in Financial Institutions, Development Economics, and SME Finance

Moral hazard is not individual bad ethics — it is a flaw in incentive design. An analysis of how this phenomenon arises in financial institutions, development finance programs, and SME lending, with an analytical matrix for assessing it.

Financial & Credit Analysis 18 min read
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Article

Assessing the Creditworthiness of SMEs in Oil Economies

Why SME creditworthiness in oil economies cannot be understood in isolation from the oil price cycle and institutional quality — an analysis aimed at policymakers, researchers, and development finance institutions.

Financial & Credit Analysis 6 min read
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Article

Strategic Planning and Supply Chain Management in SMEs

Strategy is not a theoretical document — it is an operational capability tested inside the supply chain. An analysis of the integrative relationship between strategic planning and supply chain management in SMEs.

SME Finance 8 min read
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Article

White Elephant Projects: The Economic Concept and Leading Examples in the Gulf

What are white elephant projects, why do they arise, and how did Qatar partially avoid the trap through its 2022 World Cup stadiums, while other regional megaprojects fell into it?

Feasibility Studies & Investment 10 min read
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Article

SMEs: The Backbone of the Economy, Society, and State

A comprehensive statistical look at the role of SMEs in the economy, society, and the state, with a particular focus on Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and the GCC, drawing on data from the World Bank, IMF, IFC, OECD, and the Arab Monetary Fund.

Development & Gulf Economies 11 min read
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