Denis Opudo
The 7th Annual Wharton MENA Conference took place in Manhattan, New York, USA on 23rd March 2018. MENA conference brings together government entities and representatives of big companies from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The 2018 conference operated under the title The Inflection Point: Finance and Technology in a Re-emerging MENA. The launch came at the time when it was much needed by the young entrepreneurs in the Middle East.
The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) got the chance to represent the Kingdom. It discussed the Kingdom’s experience and effort targeted at lifting entrepreneurs. It also talked about how they are working to equip technology startups with accelerators and incubators. Badir Program for Technology Incubator and Accelerator was the KAGST representative. MENA main agenda comprised of different topics portioned into several sessions. The first session had the title ‘The Emergence of VC as a Tool for Innovation and Sustainable Growth. It was then followed by the second session that talked about ‘Chasing an Arabian Unicorn: Is the MENA Region the Next Place to Look for $1B Companies? Unicorn is a name used in describing companies that are worth above $1 billion.
The second session had Chief Executive Officer of Badir Program for Technology Incubators as the main speaker. Setting the Stage for a New Way to Do Business was discussed at length in the third session. It talked about the required economic and legal steps to improve the future of tech. They also discussed improving the future entrepreneurship and finance in the Middle East discussion.
The USA has the highest number of a unicorn. The companies either came from e-commerce markets or sectors supporting online sales and buying. The upcoming markets in the Middle East still have got challenges in taking in the upcoming of Unicorn companies. This is according to the Chief Executive Officer, Badir Program for Technology Incubators. Many government initiatives and legislation that assisted in developing a good environment for entrepreneurship were discussed. This took place at the Technology and Entrepreneurship Session. This discussion was led by Chief Executive Officer of Badir Program Nawaf Al-Sahhaf. The highlighted points have helped Kingdom of Saudi Arabic (KSA) in its quest for improving the region’s economy. The region decided to shift from depending on oil to offering support to the private sector. Saudi Arabia has for long relied on petroleum production in the growth of its economy. But they are planning to move to a diversified, productive. Furthermore, they are aiming at making their economy a worldwide competitive economy. This is contained in the Saudi Vision 2030.
