By Bonnie James/Deputy News Editor

A new initiative to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship among young people in Qatar and the rest of the Gulf countries was launched yesterday by Qatar University (QU) and Interactive Business Network (IBN).
Under the patronage of HE Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry, QU’s College of Business and Economics (CBE) and IBN are jointly organising the Entrepreneurship in Economic Development Forum on February 24-25, 2014 at QU.
“The forum, a first in the region, aims to bring together young entrepreneurs and prospective business owners and provide them with expert advice and guidance,” CBE dean Dr Nitham Hindi announced.
The key speakers at the event will include prominent personalities from Qatar, many of whom are QU alumni, and business leaders, high-level officials and policy makers, top officials of major public and private institutions, economists, academics and experts in various fields from across the region.
“They will share first-hand accounts of their experiences in starting out and growing their businesses, the trials and challenges, but also the real achievements and the high and low points of their careers,” Dr Hindi explained.
IBN Chief Executive Officer Raed Chehaib observed that at present there is a gap between theory learnt in the classroom and implementation of the same in a real-life business scenario and hoped that the forum will bridge this.
“The forum will be a unique platform to raise key issues in the field of entrepreneurship in the region and to develop a clear plan of action to enhance the role of universities and governments as incubators for a new generation of entrepreneurs,” he said.
A salient feature of the forum is that there will be lots of practical advice from successful business people, who will talk about the common mistakes of entrepreneurs and management best practice.
“There will also be important information on financing policies and programmes and the roles of public agencies, banks and angel investors in helping young entrepreneurs establish themselves and grow their businesses. Students – our future business leaders - will be able to take part in workshops throughout the Forum,” Dr Hindi said.
Chehaib pointed out that there is an urgent need in Qatar and other Gulf countries to expand the role of the private sector, to encourage and support entrepreneurship, and to nurture a new generation of young business people who have sufficient knowledge and culture to take advantage of the many opportunities that will be available in the future.
“Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) play an increasingly important role in the economies of the region. There are more than 10mn SMEs in the Middle East which combined, contribute to advancing the GDP of the region by an estimated 14% annually. And these companies have the ability to raise the value of the $6bn GDP recorded in 2010 to $15bn by 2015,” he maintained.
Dr Hindi asserted that SMEs will play an increasingly important role in the development of Qatar as it diversifies its economy in line with the National
Vision 2030.
“We need to instil in our students an appreciation of what it is like to run your own business and play a crucial part in helping Qatar grow locally, regionally and internationally. We want young people not only to think about getting a job in a large organisation after graduation but to have the knowledge, skills and acumen to want to take risks and set out on their own path to success.
“As many as 80% of the students in CBE are Qatari and if we could inspire at least 50% of them to be entrepreneurs, it would be a major success,” he said.
The CBE already runs a highly popular programme in entrepreneurship at the undergraduate level and there is a significant focus on entrepreneurship throughout its MBA
programme.
QU also organises an annual business plan competition for students and the results are to be announced at the forum in February. QU students also have an excellent track record taking part in national and international business
contests such as Al Fikra.