By NNN-WAM,
Dubai : The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator (PICTI) to initiate joint efforts for encouraging and stimulating entrepreneurial activity within Palestine and across the Arab world.
The MoU was signed here Tuesday by Sultan Lootah, vice president of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, Entrepreneurship and Employment sector, and Laith Kassis, general manager of PICTI.
An independent organisation that seeks to sustain the growth of the ICT sector in Palestine, PICTI is recognised for its remarkable contribution as an incubator. It offers professional business services to emerging entrepreneurs who offer mature concepts for unique and innovative products that boast a strong market potential.
The agreement complements the Foundation’s endeavour to establish an Arab Incubators’ Network to mobilize efforts for closing the unemployment gap and promoting enterprise, productivity and innovation across the Arab world. Cooperation with PICTI will help the Foundation identify, develop, and oversee the implementation of new initiatives that drive employment opportunities for the youth. It will also seek to identify and incubate technology projects in pre-seed, seed and early stages of development.
Sultan Lootah said: “With a remarkably large proportion of youth, the Arab region offers huge untapped opportunities. The Foundation endeavours to support individual efforts while creating a network of leading incubators such as PICTI to provide integrated resources for promoting entrepreneurial activity across the Arab world. The proposed network will play a significant role in mitigating unemployment in the region.”
Targeting the sustainability of regional economic growth, the Arab Incubators’ Network will facilitate the exchange of information and best practices among key stakeholders and decision-makers to foster regional job creation.
Online entrepreneurship-related educational content will also be made available to all members of the network’s partner organisations.
On his part, Kassis said: “PICTI is fully committed to the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation’s noble cause, which aims at creating better opportunities for the youth, both within Palestine and across the Arab world”.
Launched in May 2007 with an endowment of USD10 billion, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation seeks to invest in a series of programmes that provide the necessary infrastructure and set the appropriate environment for knowledge creation in the Arab world. Encouraging Arab intellectual output, facilitating knowledge transfer, nurturing young talent, and setting the right environment for cultural development are some of the key strategic objectives of the Foundation.