Aspiring business owners in the Middle East must overcome obstacles including legal hazards, a lack of funding and an outdated education system if they want to start a company.
That was warning from some of the region's most successful business gurus yesterday. The CEOs of low-cost airline Air Arabia, retailer Axiom Telecom and logistics giant Aramex told delegates on the opening day of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Dubai that despite progress in recent years, much still needs to be done to make the Middle East a more fertile region for start-ups and small firms.
The event was opened by UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
In a discussion on the future of entrepreneurship delegates were warned that research shows only 8 per cent of young people in the region had ambitions of starting their own business.
Entrepreneurship, said Aramex founder and CEO Fadi Ghandour, "is sexy, it is nice, people talk about it... but in my view we need to demystify it and bring it down to earth so we don't think it is like rocket science."
But even for those who are already resolved to creating their own company - it ain't easy. Axiom Telecom CEO Faisal Abdulaziz Al Bannai warned that budding businesses face a funding "bottleneck" that is "too narrow" for many good ideas to become reality.
Ron Bruder, founder of Education for Employment, an initiative to help create opportunities for unemployed youth in the region, advised Middle East countries to "look at their bankruptcy laws" so budding entrepreneurs aren't scared off from taking risks by fears they will be held personally liable for debts incurred by their business.
"Everybody fails - and we want to know that we are not going to go to jail," he said, adding that those who act in good faith but see their business founder should then be able to "dust themselves off and get on with their lives".
Meanwhile, Air Arabia CEO Adel Ali took aim at education, saying there is "very little trust in public schools" across the region.
"If you are in a public school you can learn more sitting at home going through the internet and watching TV than at school," he told delegates. But perseverance is the mark of the successful entrepreneur, he said.
"When I wanted to set up our business, there wasn't a single aviation expert in the Arab world who told me that we would succeed. The most I was given was about six months, and the less optimistic people said three months. Next year we are going to celebrate ten years and 15 million dollars is 1.2 billion dollars."
© 7Days 2012
