Saturday 27 / July / 2024
Muscat: A series of events in line with the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW 2018) kicked off in the National Business Centre (NBC) at the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM) yesterday.
The inauguration event featured success stories of Kuwaiti and Omani entrepreneurs, in addition to an accompanying SMEs exhibition.
Speaking at the opening event, Malak bint Ahmed Al Shaibaniyah, Director General of NBC, said, “The GEW series of events come to spread awareness on entrepreneurship and encourage Omani youth to turn their innovative ideas into real projects”.
She added, “The theme of this year’s week is ‘Failure taught me’. It is the sixth consecutive year that we are organising events in line with the GEW. The week is globally celebrated by 167 countries to highlight the significance of entrepreneurship and inspire talented individuals to start their businesses”.
Success stories
The event underscored the successful story of the Kuwaiti entrepreneur Dawood Marafie, who is recognised as one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the Arab world.
Marafie began his career path as food service worker at McDonald’s and then worked in several bodies in various fields including sales, insurance, world stock markets, and banking.
Marafie has successfully initiated a number of companies including Emtidad Company and Shiraa for Projects Management Company, as well as he is a founder of the Union of GCC Entrepreneurs and Association of Small and Medium Enterprises of Kuwait.
He is also a member of several committees in government bodies including the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprise Development and Public Authority of Manpower.
The event highlighted the successful journeys of three Omani entrepreneurs. Khalid Al Abri went through several failure points in his entrepreneurship journey until he finally found his passion in the coffee business after having an experience with an advertising company in 2010. He is today the founder and partner of Ostool Al Bon Café, which is specialised in a variety of coffee types made with high standard of excellence and great passion. It should be noted that Mashura event will be held on the second day of GEW Oman 2018, which will be held at Riyada incubator to enhance entrepreneurship awareness among owners of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
On the third day, Reyooq event will be held to highlight employment challenges in SMEs. Reyooq events offer a platform for interactive discussions and exchange of views on major sectors in the Sultanate and thus encourage entrepreneurs to start businesses in these sectors.
An evening event under the title of ‘Speed Networking’ will also take place on the third day. The event’s fourth day will witness a workshop on investment readiness in addition to a discussion gathering called ‘Lamma’.
