Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Dubai: More than 50 per cent of young Arabs believe their generation is more likely to start their own business than previous generations, reveal newly released results of the Arab Youth Survey conducted earlier this year.

Real estate, technology and retail were the top three sectors in which Arab youth would like to start a new business venture.

Real estate is the preferred choice for a start-up in the Gulf states, where 24 per cent of youth said they would opt to launch a property-related company.

Technology was the top choice for would-be entrepreneurs in the Levant (15 per cent) and North Africa (18 per cent).

Retail is the second most popular choice in Levant and North Africa for 15 per cent and 16 per cent of respondents respectively; however in the Gulf only 9 per cent would opt to start a retail operation.

Sunil John, chief executive officerm Asda’a Burson-Marsteller — who has helped lead the study for the last eight years — said the survey is the largest independent study of its kind of the region’s largest demographic.

In a statement on Tuesday, John said the latest entrepreneurial findings “suggest governments in the Middle East have an excellent opportunity to really help kick-start an entrepreneurial culture in the region. With the Arab world needing to provide 80 to 100 million jobs by 2020, according to the World Bank, this represents a rich resource of largely untapped talent who can help drive the Arab world’s transformation to knowledge-based economies, and provide the opportunities of the future”.

Youth, representing a 50-50 split in women and men citizen respondents in each of the 16 countries across the Middle East, were interviewed face-to-face in January and February this year between the ages of 18-24 for the survey done by Penn Schoen Berland.

The latest key finding from the survey was unveiled by John at the multi-stakeholder panel on Addressing Youth Unemployment at the Ta’atheer Mena Social Impact and CSR Forum held this week in Dubai.

The survey revealed that when asked ‘do you feel people in this generation are more likely to start a business than in previous generations’ 54 per cent agreed, with youth in the GCC most enthusiastic at 62 per cent, compared to 54 per cent of North African youth and 44 per cent of youth in the Levant.

In a separate response, the survey found that 36 per cent of young Arabs said they intend to start their own business in the next five years — 37 per cent of youth in the GCC, 39 per cent in North Africa and 31 per cent in the Levant.

Staff Report

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