INJAZ Al-Arab will host its 6th annual INJAZ Al-Arab Young Arab Entrepreneurs Competition in Doha, Qatar on November 4th- 6th, held under the patronage of the Qatar Foundation. The competition will see students from 13 countries across the MENA region competing for the highly coveted ‘Best Student Company of the Year Award’ before a panel of high-profile Pan Arab business leaders.
Earlier this year, each of the contending countries held their own individual national competition where around “The Company” program in which students spent four months training on entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness. The winning team from each country will now represent their nation in Qatar. Teams will be represented from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen.
Representing Bahrain in this regional competition is team “Plenum”, winners of INJAZ Bahrain’s “The Company” program which saw competition from 12 schools and the University of Bahrain. The team, which is comprised of 5 young Bahraini entrepreneurs, came up with an electronic ergonomic chair mattress that sets off an alarm if the person’s seating posture is incorrect.
“This competition is an exciting opportunity for INJAZ Bahrain student entrepreneurs to demonstrate the teamwork, leadership and innovative thinking that will help them drive success in the business world,” Shaikha Hessa Bint Khalifa Al Khalifa, Executive Director of INJAZ Bahrain, said.
“They also have the opportunity to create connections and share ideas with other INJAZ students, while learning the value of responsibility and the pursuit of excellence as they build business-and personal-success. Our partners Tamkeen and GPIC are helping to empower students to reach high levels of business excellence-and share these skills with the world.”
Judging criteria includes a review of financial and management reports created by the students on the real life challenges of running a business in addition to a presentation on their product innovation. In total, students will battle it out for five accolades including the highly coveted Best Company of the Year award sponsored by ExxonMobil. Other awards include the 2012 Barwa Bank Award for Best Marketing Plan, the 2012 Nasser Bin Khaled Award for Company with the Best Social Impact, the 2012 HSBC Award for Most Innovative Product, and the 2012 FedEx Access Award.
The INJAZ Al-Arab Young Arab Entrepreneurs Competition was established in 2007 and is recognised as the region’s leading entrepreneurship competition for Arab youth. Since its inception, the annual event has been hosted by various INJAZ Al-Arab member nations including Oman, Lebanon, Morocco and Jordan.
INJAZ Al-Arab thanked Qatar Foundation for its patronage of the competition as well as this year’s sponsors: ExxonMobil as Platinum Sponsor, Nasser Bin Khaled and Barwa Bank as Gold Sponsors, HSBC, FedEx, MEPI and Qatar First Investment Bank as Partners, the Museum of Islamic Art and the Qatar Museum Authority as Event Partners, and INJAZ Qatar, this year’s host nation.