UAE digital Startups can become the keystone in increasing global GDP by $1.5 trillion and creating 10 million youth jobs, industry experts announced this week at the recent SAP Startup Focus Event, held in the build-up to GITEX Technology Week 2016. By 2020, digital startups in general will help increase global GDP by $1.5 trillion, according to the recent Accenture report "Harnessing the Power of Entrepreneurs to Open Innovation". Demonstrating the UAE's potential, the country ranks as the top in the Middle East and North Africa, and top 20 in the world in supporting entrepreneurs, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Index 2016. In line with UAE Vision 2021, which is transforming the country into a global entrepreneurship hub, the SAP Training and Development Institute has conducted a second Startup Focus Event in the UAE, held in partnership with Dubai Internet City's in5 Innovation Center. During the two-day event with more than 150 participants, innovators gained insights from successful startup founders, and interacted with media and venture capitalists. Promising entrepreneurs also learned operational details on running their startup, and gained coding skills to build their application on SAP HANA, one of the world's fastest growing in memory platforms. The event provided attending startups with the opportunity to become part of the global SAP Startup Focus Program. — SG
