Prince Khaled Al-Faisal (second from right), Emir of Makkah, listens to a young Saudi entrepreneur. By Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah, underlined the importance of having the “will" factor for Saudi Arabia to be a member of the advanced countries. Inaugurating on Monday the three-day youth exhibition at Jeddah Center for Forums and Exhibitions in Jeddah, the Emir of Makkah said that while the Kingdom does not lack the financial resources, there is an essential factor that each member of the Saudi society needs to have for the country to be among the advanced countries, and this factor is “the will." The prince also expressed his gratitude to the 300 participating youth in the exhibition and said, “thank you for giving us this feeling and we hope the number of participants will double fast during the reign of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah." The exhibition aims at helping the youth to get involved in the job market and enable them to start up their own businesses and develop them. The committee at JCCI helps ease challenges that small businesses face. The event was attended by Prince Mishal Bin Majid, Governor of Jeddah, and organized by the Youth Committee at the JCCI. Saleh Kamel, Chairman of JCCI, said that they will launch a television channel, the Jeddah Diwan channel, that will focus on the economy of the Kingdom and the region and will shed light on youth businesses. “These youth participating in the exhibition provide a role model to other young generations who are doing nothing but hanging out in streets," said Kamel, addressing the audience at the inauguration ceremony. A new project “Tamkin'" was announced Monday. The project aims at enhancing the growth of small and medium businesses by creating a channel between them and large companies and government bodies. Mohammad Suwailih, head of the Youth Businessmen Committee, said the exhibition will help youth display their products and services while also providing workshops. Speaking on the side of the event about their cause of their project initiative, he said “each year we have large number of small businesses participating with us, some are growing, some are dying, only 10 percent survive and we want to increase the percentage of surviving businesses. Therefore we wanted to have this initiative for businesses to develop and last." This will be achieved through a partnership between large businesses and small start-ups which can be achieved through a website where the large companies indicating their needs and small businesses can apply to fill them, he added. Arij Olwan, designer of the exhibition, said she came up with the idea of distributing the stalls according to the nature of the business. “This helps youth benefit from each other, as they have the same projects and could benefit by exchanging experiences and even making deals. This also helps us bring the concerned government official to address youth who are investing in one particular sector and make the official address the target youth directly." The different ventures that the youth are starting up include media, catering, tourism, consulting, clothing, among others Olwan said. Rania Salama, head of the Youth Businesswomen Committee at JCCI, hoped the exhibition will be an opportunity for youth to present themselves to large businesses and make deals with them. “This year we want to focus on keeping data and making a study about the type of projects presented and the surviving potentials. We have participants mainly from Jeddah, but others are coming from Makkah, Yanbu and the Eastern Province." However, setting up a business, though small, is not simple, much more not easy. Abdul Rahman, a young Saudi who started a small business of selling burgers and shakes two years ago at one of Jeddah busy districts, was not fortunate. Abdul Rahman who took a loan to expand his business, narrated that the challenges he faced were many, but the major challenge in maintaining a full time business was more workers, something which he could not afford. After two years Abdul Rahman decided to set his business aside until he could rebuild himself again. The case of Abdul Rahman is no exception, said Khaled Al-Harthi, head of the hospitality committee at the JCCI, as 90 percent of small businesses tend to close down during the first three years. Lack of experience and resources is a main cause for closing businesses. Catering, he said, is a challenging business and though he encourages youth to go for it, he advises them not to start a business before taking the needed experience by working first in this sector and obtaining the necessary skills and qualifications. The tourism sector he said is an essential sector in the Kingdom as it is taking over 20 percent of all job opportunities available in the market. There are more females participating this year compared to males, Al-Harthi added.
