Sharjah Business Women Council (SBWC) has joined forces with UAE-based Al Ahli Holding Group to support the Emirati youth and help them boost their entrepreneurship skills and develop their leadership qualities.

To strengthen their partnership, the duo recently signed a MoU aimed at building bridges of communication between them and the youth of the world.

In line with this, the SBWC is sponsoring the participation of five female entrepreneurs at the three-week 'Global Business Opportunities'(GBO) program which begins today in Lebanon.

The GBO is an unprecedented educational and cultural program to create a working group among youth from two or more distant and different cultures, to identify business opportunities and develop entrepreneurship skills.

At the Lebanon event, each group will present their business idea and plan to a judging panel which will give them valuable advices, before selecting a winning project by the end of the program.

The GBO 2011, being held in Lebanon for the first time, will see 30 participants from UAE, Lebanon and Columbia  interact with top business and academic leaders from the participating countries.

They will have the opportunity to visit large corporations, establish contact networks and interact with people with similar experiences and interests in the business world.

Over 23 days, the participants have to attend trainings in 14 different business topics, which prove to be most useful to help the participants jump start their own businesses, six interpersonal skills trainings in addition to five field visits for the most successful entrepreneurial businesses.

Ameera A. Binkaram, chairperson of SBWC, said “Our objective is to empower entrepreneurs to identify and achieve their ambitions in both traditional and non-traditional sectors in the UAE. This urges us to work in unity with concerned authorities from the public and private sectors in UAE to develop economic, trade and industrial activities.”
 
“This MoU will define the framework within which our organizations can explore opportunities to foster entrepreneurship in the region. We are honored to sponsor five distinguished UAE female entrepreneurs at the GBO.”

Participants of the GBO are Ghada Al Amiri, management and leadership, Maitha Al-Mutawa, strategist in Brand Union, Ohood Omar, planning and strategies, Jameela Al Suwidi, civil engineer, and Amna Abdulla, artist.
 
'This agreement is a new step taken towards a greater co-operation with various governmental organizations to support and empower young UAE,” said Mohammed Khammas, CEO of Al Ahli Holding Group.

“We believe in the importance of our cooperation as a private sector with governmental and educational institutions in order to develop different initiatives and programs that would serve our medium and long-term human development strategic objectives in UAE.'

On her participation, Al-Mutawa said: 'Through my experience in the field of strategies, I noticed a gap in UAE entrepreneurship market. So I worked on developing a business that will serve the community. However, I lacked the required experience to establish such a business.'
 
On the selection criteria, Lina Hourani, CRS division director at Al Ahli Group, said participants should be university graduates or 4th year students in the age group of 20 to 27 years. They should administer leadership, creativity and social skills. Participants have to be capable of representing UAE and willing to start a business.
 
Khuloud Alhouli, strategy project manager, said the SBWC aims to encourage women's contribution in the development process in the UAE in general and Sharjah in particular.

'One of our strategic objectives is to encourage youth to become active in the business world through raising awareness about entrepreneurship among UAE women along with providing specially tailored youth development programs, Alhouli noted.

After completing the program, participants will be able to develop successful business and marketing plans and put it into action, understand the concept of business model, develop strategies and organizational structures of their businesses.-TradeArabia News Service