The Jeddah Young Business Women's Committee, at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry, announced that there has been a large turnout in the registration for the Young Jeddah Entrepreneurs competition. The competition's website is currently overflowing with requests from young females with creative business ideas who are potential entrepreneurs aiming to capture the competition's prizes to launch their dream projects. The competition involves the participation of 30 female candidates who own small businesses or have bright ideas for future projects. They will be provided with a selection of training programs, followed by monitoring the performance of their project for a period of 10 training sessions in preparation for them to meet potential investors who could offer promising opportunities for the talented young ladies. The projects will be evaluated during the Jeddah Entrepreneurs Meet by a judging committee who will choose the top ten projects, which will receive monetary prizes to serve as a non recoverable paid-in capital. Rania Salama, Head of the Jeddah Young Business Women's Committee, said: “The competition's website continues to accept applications and we are very pleased with the large number of bright project ideas that we have received so far, which are expected to increase significantly by the end of the registration period”. “There is a balance between quantity and quality, as we saw a large number of promising ideas and projects that reflect the aspirations of young Saudi women to break into various sectors, and record a successful mark in them with a vision to transform these ideas into reality. This led us to study cooperating with numerous parties that support the government and private sectors, to make use of all services provided by these entities from facilitating and guidance, and overcoming obstacles to find a suitable environment for the launch and growth of these projects into fruition on home ground.” “Our objective is integrating with all those who share our goals to support small business, and investing in its presence and success in realizing the concept of entrepreneurship and the desired development of the local economy. Based on the various types of innovative applications we have received, which we believe could be successfully implemented; I can see that we will have strong competition among the contenders.” “The competition represents a serious attempt by the committee to support young female entrepreneurs and provide the elements they need to establish their business projects, including providing the seed capital and the training to bring their ideas to reality and achieve sustainable success and growth,” said Sarah Al Ayed, Director of Strategy at TRACCS, a leading regional public relations agency. “We at the Jeddah Young Business Women's Committee will do everything we can to stimulate and support the prize winning projects in order for them to become commercially successful initiatives that enrich the Saudi economy. We are also aiming to open the way for students who are about to graduate college to join the self-employment opportunities available in the Saudi market, and support their ideas and aspirations so that they can contribute in providing employment opportunities rather than looking for a job.”
