HRH Governor of the Eastern Province Inaugurates the 5th Entrepreneurship Forum at King Fahd University

HRH Prince Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz, Governor of the Eastern Province, stressed that the fifth forum for entrepreneurship, organized by King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, has become a manifestation of the University's interest in building a culture of entrepreneurship, raising awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship, providing new economic activities depending on R & D and innovative services, and deepens the involvement of entrepreneurs in the transition to a knowledge economy.

During the ceremony on Wednesday 21^st February 2018, the Prince emphasized that KFUPM’s interest in entrepreneurship was a natural result of the great support of our wise government, under the leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, may Allah preserve them. This support aims to build an educational system that meets the evolving and emerging needs of the labor market, encourages the initiative of young citizens, helps them to spread their creativity, develops their abilities and expertise, and transforms their innovative ideas into economically viable products which in turn diversifies the production base and enhances the national economy.

HRH explained that the University was right when the Forum's leaders chose "Participatory Entrepreneurship in Light of Saudi Vision 2030" as the title of the forum. He stated “The Vision endeavors to support SMEs (small and medium enterprises) as the next economic power, and one of the most important engines of economic growth, through adjusting laws and regulations, removing obstacles and difficulties, facilitating access to financial support, and helping entrepreneurs to market their ideas and products.

These entrepreneurship projects confirm the success of the University in keeping up with the great development witnessed by higher education in the world, and adapting the appropriate projects and initiatives to the local environment’s needs. I am also very happy that the University succeeded in instilling a culture of pioneering thinking in many minds of its students, incorporated entrepreneurship skills into its academic programs, and helped students move beyond traditional employment to innovation and entrepreneurship, especially as entrepreneurship has become one of the most important tools of economic development and an important asset for advanced economies”, he added.

In conclusion, His Royal Highness thanked the University's Rector Dr. Khalid bin Saleh Al-Sultan and the University's family for their efforts to improve its performance. He also thanked the Forum’s supporting bodies for their national responsibility in supporting entrepreneurship, and the experts and specialists who will help the Forum to achieve its objectives.

For his part, Dr. Khalid Al Sultan, KFUPM Rector, expressed his thanks and appreciation to His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz for his patronage and support of the University's mission in developing pioneer thinking as a part of his support for the University's role in promoting the national development process headed by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz.

He also praised the Forum’s supporters and the participating experts, specialists and researchers "in recognition of the University's status, and convinced of the importance of the forum in providing young people with the technical expertise, foundations and necessary skills to establish a successful innovative project."

"The Forum is held in the right place and at the right time," he said. "It is held at a University that has a pioneering entrepreneurial experience and embraces a large number of entrepreneurs who have gone beyond the job search to the experience of providing it to others."

He added that the title of the Forum "Participatory Entrepreneurship in the Light of Saudi Vision 2030" is in line with the Vision regarding the importance of guiding the energies of our youth towards entrepreneurship, supporting SMEs and establishing more business incubators, training institutions and providing venture capital funds to help entrepreneurs.

His Excellency stated that if we look at the classification of countries based on education factors set by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), we will find that, according to the 2016  GEM report, the Kingdom occupies the first rank out of 66 countries in terms of the tendency towards entrepreneurship, but in the same report, it indicates that the Kingdom places 61^st in entrepreneurship teaching at the undergraduate level and above, which thus requires a detailed plan to strengthen our efforts in this field and to include entrepreneurship in our academic programs. Despite the achievement of pioneering thinking in the minds of students, the road ahead is still long.

We have a wealth of students who may become entrepreneurs, and faculty members who can play an important role in the achievement of new research and innovation, as well as fulfill their role as mentors, and mentors of students and new entrepreneurial projects. The universities provide the vital infrastructure of the startup communities with the academic programs, research laboratories, programs, pioneer activities and technology transfer offices.

"Over the past 10 years, KFUPM has set strategic goals to establish its innovation and entrepreneurship system. The University has established Dhahran Techno Valley (DTV), in cooperation with KFUPM’s partner, Saudi Aramco, to attract national and multinational corporations’ research and development to DTV’s Science Oasis, particularly in the energy field.  The University also founded the DTV Company to be its investment arm.  Furthermore, KFUPM focused on building intellectual property portfolios and building an effective system for the transfer and commercialization of technology in strategic technical areas, particularly in the areas of energy, to support the development of pioneering projects. KFUPM has established an institute for entrepreneurship (EI), targeting all KFUPM’s students, the graduates of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Scholarship Program, and graduates from other universities through a program called “Pioneers of 2030”. The Institute helps students enrolled in this program to develop pioneer thinking in solving problems, as well as to establish emerging technology companies. The Institute focuses on the important fields in Saudi Arabia such as energy, petrochemicals, water, nanotechnology, construction techniques, consumer technologies, as well as technical services such as information technology and community service. Several pioneering teams  supervised by the EI won local and regional awards. Four forums on Entrepreneurship were organized, with the participation of more than 55 speakers, representing 39 lectures and 8 panel discussions. In addition, more than 1600 hours of guidance were conducted with a network of more than 120 mentors, and 64 startups were adopted, including eight technical startups., with the rest being service companies. About 1320 students and more than 200 faculty members participated in the activities of the EI, and over 900 pioneer ideas have been examined since the foundation of the Institute. The University has established a Global Advisory Council for the Institute, which provides non-binding recommendations to the University's administration on the performance of the Institute.”

His Excellency explained that all the achievements of the Institute are due to the support of many institutions, companies and businessmen of its activities. This support helped KFUPM to win the award of the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority for being the best university in supporting business entrepreneurs in the Kingdom last September. We, in cooperation with SABIC, have launched a unique program for industrial projects entrepreneurship and has the goal , within one year, to open small factories based on creative ideas, where the entrepreneurs use SABIC products. This will contribute to raising the local level, as well as providing job opportunities for youth.

Eng. Fouad Mousa, who delivered SABIC's speech at the opening of the Forum, said that interest in small and medium enterprises is now a strategic necessity; it has become increasingly important as the economy’s traditional patterns fade away during the move towards the diversification of income, witnessed by the largest integrated plan to reproduce the national economy model, represented by the Saudi Vision 2030.

"The partnership between SABIC and King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, represented by the “Nessand” Initiative and Entrepreneurship Institute, is one of the most successful pieces of evidence for a solid partnership, which aims to build a future partnership capable of addressing the demands of economic transformation. One of its signature results is the launch of the entrepreneurship program in the field of manufacturing and small projects to support the Saudi entrepreneurs in establishing industrial companies, attracting investors and customers, and establishing small factories that increase the percentage of local content.

"At the end of last year, SABIC was awarded the Best National Supporting Firm for Small and Medium Enterprises in the Kingdom, while the Entrepreneurship Institute won the award of the Best Entrepreneurship Support Program in the Kingdom. These achievements increased the confidence in the quality of this partnership, as it gathered the finest experiences, ideas and mechanisms to develop the sector of entrepreneurship and launch its capabilities in line with the vision of our government.

Dr. Wail A. Mousa, Dean of the Entrepreneurship Institute, said the Forum's program includes two lectures and sessions of interactive discussion that will gather national entrepreneurs, decision-makers and investors in the field of entrepreneurship for the first time. The Forum exhibition includes the pioneer projects which emerged in KFUPM’s Institute during various stages, starting with the innovative idea, the development of the model and work plan, and then to the integrated project.

At the end of the ceremony, His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz honored the companies supporting the Forum, namely Saudi Aramco-Strategic Partner, SABIC-Diamond Sponsor-, Anusoft-Technical Sponsor, Al-Yaum Newspaper-Media Sponsor-, Rotana Khalijia-the TV Channel.