As part of its efforts to foster and develop entrepreneurship in Bahrain, Tamkeen will launch the “Mashroo3i” Youth Business Awards. The pioneering initiative will enable Bahrain’s budding entrepreneurs to showcase their creative business ideas in a nation-wide competition.
Bahrainis from the age of 16 to 23 will be eligible to enter the competition, which will commence on March 8th.
The competition has already received strong support from some of the Kingdom’s most prominent members of the business and education communities and civil society bodies, who are slated to play an important role in the success of the competition by serving as Mentors, Judges and knowledge resource providers to the participating student teams.
“When examining successful, sustainable modern economies, we often find that entrepreneurship forms the backbone of economic development, fueling job creation and innovation. As such, we have identified it as one of the key areas of focus within our strategy. The “Mashroo3i” Youth Business Competition will be one of the main vehicles by which we accomplish this goal,” Tamkeen’s Chief Executive Mahmood Hashem Al-Kooheji said.
Tamkeen has allocated nearly BD 3.4 million for 12 projects – including the “Mashroo3i Awards” – aimed at promoting entrepreneurship amongst Bahrainis. Nearly 3,000 Bahrainis have benefited from these programmes to date, which are run in collaboration with leading organizations such as the Supreme Council for Women, Bahrain Development Bank, Bahrain Business Incubation Centre, and inJAz Bahrain.
These programmes range from the Start-up Support Scheme, which provides comprehensive solutions to turn entrepreneurial ideas into actual business ventures, to workshops and networking events, as well as special programmes to encourage entrepreneurship amongst Bahraini women and school students.
“Tamkeen’s focus is to empower Bahrainis to take control of their own lives in all that we do. Fostering the creation of sustainable and competitive businesses not only enables them to do that, but also helps to form a solid result-oriented and profit-driven entrepreneurial system that bolsters business growth in Bahrain,” he added.
The door for registration of the participating student teams and their business ideas for the “Mashroo3i” Youth Business Awards are slated to officially open (8th of March) through the official competition website (www.mashroo3i.bh),
The competition website (www.mashroo3i.bh) will also serve as a fully-fledged knowledge resource center, providing educational and training materials for the participating teams.
All business ideas will then undergo a screening and evaluation process to shortlist the most outstanding ideas by a qualified panel of experts. The shortlisted teams will then be assigned mentors to guide them through the next stage of business planning.
All business plans will then be evaluated on pre-defined criteria by the judging panel, with 30 shortlisted teams allowed to ‘open for business’, whereby they will undertake the practical operations of setting up a real-life business by participating in a four days exhibition.
The competition will culminate with an awards ceremony to honor the top three teams.