jordan pulse -
In conjunction with Zain Jordan’s celebration of the 8th anniversary of its establishment of the Zain Innovation Platform (ZINC), the Executive Director of the Department of Media, Communication, Innovation and Sustainability Management at Zain Jordan, Tariq Al-Bitar, brought up the platform’s work and initiatives and what it has provided throughout these years to serve the entrepreneurship system in the Kingdom, and its role It aims to promote and disseminate the culture of entrepreneurship among young people, harnessing all capabilities to advance the Jordanian entrepreneurship sector, and its contributions to achieving inspiring Jordanian entrepreneurial success stories, through its use of the areas of the globally approved entrepreneurship system in all its programs and initiatives, and the formation of effective partnerships that contributed to achieving its purposes.
Al-Bitar stated that the Zain Innovation Platform has been keen, over the past 8 years, to conclude strategic partnerships with several entities and institutions involved in the field of entrepreneurship in the Kingdom from the public and private sectors, in order to enhance the concept of partnership to serve the entrepreneurship system. These partnerships, which have so far exceeded 130 strategic partnerships; Believing in the importance of concerted efforts by all the supporting entities concerned with entrepreneurship towards an enabling environment for emerging companies, in addition to exchanging experiences in the same field to achieve common interests to support and develop the entrepreneurial environment and achieve positive results, and the success of the pioneering projects it adopts.
Speaking of participatory, Al-Bitar referred to the most prominent strategic partnerships that the Zain Innovation Platform (ZINC) has held since its establishment 8 years ago, including its extended partnership with the Crown Prince Foundation, which aims to enhance joint cooperation between the Idea Factory (Tech Works) - one of the initiatives of the Crown Prince Foundation - and the platform, to promote the concept of Innovation and entrepreneurship among young people through the opportunities offered by digital manufacturing skills, as the two parties held several training courses for entrepreneurs and university students.
Al-Bitar added that the platform had recently launched the Zain Initiative program in its sixth edition, which is one of its most important and largest programs and initiatives that it is keen to launch annually to support entrepreneurs and the Jordanian entrepreneurship sector. (Oasis 500) and (Flat6labs), expressing his happiness with this partnership that it has gathered with the most prominent business accelerators and incubators operating in the Kingdom.
Al-Bitar referred to the partnership and cooperation that brings together the Zain Innovation Platform and the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship at Princess Sumaya University for Technology. Entrepreneurial events in all governorates of the Kingdom, in addition to the platform’s contribution to providing support to the Queen Rania National Award for Entrepreneurship, and its contribution with the Center to organize qualifying qualifiers for the World Cup for Entrepreneurship, so that the platform contributes to supporting the largest possible number of Jordanian entrepreneurs, and involving them in the most prominent entrepreneurial events that are held on the The local, regional and international level.
Al-Bitar praised the cooperation that brings together the Zain Innovation Platform with universities, through which it aims to develop and develop students’ skills, enhance the culture of entrepreneurship among them, and build a generation that creates opportunities and invests itself. The platform holds in these branches many events that include training courses, workshops and dialogue sessions in the most prominent areas that students need and that suit their tendencies and needs and keep pace with everything new in the world of entrepreneurship and the labor market, and the current changes and developments that the world is witnessing In the areas of information and communication technology and digital transformation, which contributes to providing Jordanian institutions and companies with competencies through qualified generations armed with the necessary skills, as the number of events held by the platform to date reached 5,500 events, attended by nearly 330,000 young men and women.
Al-Bitar pointed out that the platform had launched this year the ZINC Fellows training program for recent university graduates and students who are about to graduate and intend to start their careers. With the aim of developing their skills and building their expertise in the modern and required fields in the labor market, as well as training a group of them within the best startup companies that have achieved success in Jordan.
Al-Bitar also stressed the platform’s keenness to reach the largest possible number of entrepreneurs in the Kingdom, and to contribute to enhancing their capabilities in their fields of work. Therefore, it had concluded a cooperation agreement with the Jordanian Engineers Association to support engineer entrepreneurs, and the programs and initiatives launched by the Association in the field of entrepreneurship. In addition to the strategic partnership it has with the Public Security Directorate, through which it contributed to the establishment of the Innovation and Development Center in the Directorate to contribute to supporting and developing the entrepreneurial and creative skills of the Directorate’s employees.
Regarding the six pillars and areas of the entrepreneurship system, which include the legislative and regulatory environment, finance, community culture, support, human skills, and markets, Al-Bitar stressed the use of them in all programs and initiatives of the Zain Innovation Platform (ZINC), most notably the “Zain Al-Mubadara” program, which is keen to: It is launched annually to support the owners of start-up companies in their initial stages and creative ideas in the Kingdom. 1,000 dinars, in addition to logistical support that includes accounting and legal services, technical advice, and visual identity services, in addition to marketing services and facilitating entry into the market for a period of one year. Through this program, the platform contributes to empowering the owners of companies and pioneering projects in the Kingdom through Facilitating all procedures to start their companies’ journey and their involvement in the markets, as the number of start-up companies that the platform has provided support for during 8 years has reached 230 companies. emerging in several fields and sectors.
Al-Bitar added that the platform is keen to involve Jordanian startups in various conferences and entrepreneurship events that are organized at the local, regional and global levels, to provide them with the opportunity to develop their businesses by meeting and networking them with investors, media, entrepreneurs, startup owners, innovators and speakers from different countries of the world, to enable them In order to expand their business and exchange experiences and knowledge with innovators, entrepreneurs and participating minds, it recently provided the opportunity for 7 Jordanian startups working in the field of financial technology and cybersecurity to attend the first Jordanian FinConJO 2022 conference and exhibition, which was organized by the Special Operations Exhibition and Conference “SOFEX”. It also recently invited 5 Jordanian startups and a group of Jordanian students to attend the Xpand 2022 International Conference; The largest international conference for software developers in the Middle East and North Africa region, and recently announced the opening of registration for startups to participate in the RiseUp Summit 2022, the largest innovation and entrepreneurship summit in the Middle East and North Africa, which will be held in Cairo, Republic of Arab Egypt, in addition to the “Step Saudi” conference, the largest gathering of its kind for startups specialized in the technology and entrepreneurship sector, and it will be held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the capital, Riyadh, during the month of December, where Zain will cover all costs.
Al-Bitar concluded his speech by stressing that Zain will continue its efforts through its innovation platform (ZINC) to make the difference required by the Jordanian entrepreneurship sector and serve the entrepreneurial system in the Kingdom, and to continue providing all forms of support to Jordanian entrepreneurs and youth to meet the challenges they face to advance and develop their businesses and remove all obstacles in front of them and push them To move forward towards their goals and ambitions.