Descon, US firm to jointly provide engineering services in Gulf countries

Descon Engineering, a leading enterprise in the region, has joined hands with KBR, a leading global engineering and project company, to extend the scope of their joint pursuit of outsourced maintenance and turnaround management opportunities across the Gulf countries, a statement said.

Taimur Dawood, chairman of Descon, and Jay Ibrahim, president of KBR’s Sustainable Technology Solutions, signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Dubai in this regard, extending their mutual area of expertise to the Gulf countries.

This strategic alliance will leverage both KBR and Descon’s combined strength as the leaders of industrial services in the market to optimise client OPEX, improve asset availability and reliability through KBR’s portfolio of advanced digital solutions and Descon’s presence across the Gulf countries.

Commenting on this momentous development, Dawood said: “Descon holds great stature in the engineering sector of the Gulf countries and is playing a pivotal role in the industrial growth of the region. This accord with KBR will allow us to extend our already existing skillset and expertise and implement mutual learnings to achieve exponential growth.”

Ibrahim said: “This agreement signals our confidence in this alliance; following our success in the delivery of outsourced maintenance services in Qatar since 2021 and maps out the foundation for the future growth of this strategic partnership.”

Metric launches grant, mentorship programme

In a move to empower micro, small and medium-sized businesses and to help them power through the deepening economic crisis, Metric, a business accounting platform, has announced its flagship programme Spur, a statement said.

Through Spur, Metric and its official partners will provide mentorship and grants to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), helping them generate revenue, enabling them to manage their finances and guiding them to success, it added.

Metric is the world’s most founder-friendly business accounting app, enabling small businesses to manage their finances easily and quickly and giving them powerful insights that allow them to make data-based and timely business decisions.

It is being used in 90 plus countries by thousands of businesses, after just six months of launch. Spur is Metric’s seed and support programme for small businesses. The pilot for Spur has been launched this week and applications will close on February 5, 2023.

A total of Rs4 million has been allocated for this programme and the businesses can receive grants of up to Rs250k, which can be used by them to market and growth.