Sharjah – The Arab Union for Entrepreneurship has elected Sheikh Tariq bin Faisal Al Qassimi as its new chairman for the upcoming term. Entrepreneurship is an integral part of the national economic cycle due to its role in providing numerous and diverse job opportunities for youth, and Sheikh Tariq Al Qassimi, who has extensive experience and an influential presence in this field, will prove to be a valuable addition to the Union and its activities.
Reem Badran, a Jordanian business executive who served as member of the Jordanian Investment Board and CEO of the Kuwaiti Jordanian Holding Company, and Dr Abla Abdel Latif, Chairwoman of the Presidential Advisory Council for Economic Development and Advisor to the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, have been selected as the Chairman’s deputies.
The Arab Union for Entrepreneurship seeks to lay down the framework for the development of strategic action plans in order to achieve the highest levels of employment for youth, thus allowing them to benefit from their potential. This will be part of a variety of programmes and projects, which aim to realise advanced levels of comprehensive and sustainable economic and social development. The Union also strives to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship among young people and enhance the role of institutions that support it by providing funding, marketing initiatives, and guidance for business development. This encourages joint investments and cooperation between businesspeople in the Arab region and their counterparts in other areas of the world, and facilitates the transfer of technology to entrepreneurs.
Ambassador Mohammed Rabea, Secretary General of the Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU) congratulated Sheikh Tariq Al Qassimi on his election as Chairman and highlighted the importance of the establishment of the Arab Union for Entrepreneurship as one of the most important unions in the region–one that encourages economic cooperation on the basis of creativity, innovation and teamwork among Arab entrepreneurs.
The developments currently being witnessed in the field of business have created new business patterns and ideas that differ from those that prevailed in past decades. The Arab world must now interact with these changes by creating working models and programmes that enable it to keep up with both the knowledge and entrepreneurship economies.
Further, Sheikh Tariq Al Qassimi stated that the Union aims to develop entrepreneurship and to develop education programmes in Arab countries that shape the next generation of entrepreneurs. The Union provides opportunities for these young businesspeople by cooperating with supporting international institutions and organisations to sponsor different industries in the Middle East. The new generation will also be provided with opportunities to propose creative initiatives that will stimulate the existing business environment, based on competition and development among entrepreneurial initiators.
He also pointed out that there are small and medium enterprises of great value for economic development. Studies indicate that 95% of projects across the world are small and medium-sized projects and this percentage accounts for about 60% of the size of labour and employment in the private sector worldwide. In addition, he stated that small and medium enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa constitute about 80% – 90% of the total number of projects according to World Bank studies.
Lastly, Sheikh Tariq Al Qassimi revealed that the CAEU is keen to establish active and specialised qualitative Arab unions, each of which represent an Arab house of expertise in different production and development areas, infrastructure services, joint Arab investments, and international cooperation in the economic field.
Source : https://www.zawya.com
