Role of academic programmes, state policies in entrepreneurship stressed

Public and private sector leaders, as well as renowned academicians from the region and beyond, have emphasised the need to create more relevant academic programmes and government policies that will continue to encourage the development of entrepreneurial skills and capabilities among aspiring business leaders in the region.
The call was made in the presentations and discussions conducted throughout the two-day “3rd Entrepreneurship in Economic Development Forum,” which concluded yesterday. The event was organised by Qatar University and Qatar Development Bank (QDB).
“The academic community aims to provide the necessary knowledge and skills required for the success of tomorrow’s business leaders,” said Dr Khalid Shams Abdelkader, associate dean of the College of Business and Economics at Qatar University.
“Through open lines of communication with the business community and government authorities, we can effectively integrate the valuable lessons shared by successful entrepreneurs, as well as existing economic and business policies into our curriculum on entrepreneurship.
“At the same time, through academic research, the academic community can provide scholarly inputs to the public sector in the crafting of new policies that can further open up opportunities for entrepreneurial activities,” he said.
The second and final day of the forum was highlighted by a presentation by Amro Ahmed, Qatar Local Content & SME manager of Qatar Shell, who explained the process of how SMEs can tender to win business opportunities in Qatar Shell Supply Chain.
This was followed by a success story in a “Q&A format” with Talabat.com founder Mohamed Jaffar, who revealed some secrets to his e-Commerce business, which was bought by German e-Commerce group, Rocket Internet, for $170mn in 2015.
Mohamed Jalahma, acting manager Export and Trade at QDB and Dr Maher Hakim, associate professor of Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Melon University exchanged views on the theme “Financing Entrepreneurs & Entrepreneurial Venture.”
Nizar Darwish, manager of Investment at QDB and Ahmed Laiali, global ambassador of the International Business Innovation Association (IBIA), expounded on the role of angel investors and self-financing, partnership ventures, and crowdfunding.
Two keynote speeches from Ramzan al-Naimi, Creative and Branding consultant of Al Jazeera Network, and Munira al-Dosari, founding partner of Girnass Games Application – Qatar also highlighted the event.
Dr Tarek Coury, senior economist at Silatech; Bilal Randeree, managing director of Qatar Living; and Emad al-Khaja, CEO of Injaz Qatar; exchanged views on the theme “Building an Effective Entrepreneurship Ecosystem – Do we have what it takes?”