Shell continues to implement the "Intilaaqah at Riyada" programme, which aims at providing training, counselling and coaching services to Omani entrepreneurs and owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) aged between 18 and 45 years, in collaboration with the Public Authority for Small & Medium Enterprises Development, Riyada.

The "Intilaaqah at Riyada" programme consists of five major stages and is distributed throughout the year based on an agreement signed between Shell and Riyada in September 2016.

Six workshops of the first stage of the programme under the title of “Bright Ideas” have been conducted so far. The number of participants who took part in these workshops was 113 entrepreneurs and SMEs owners in four different governorates. These workshops will be supplemented by nine other workshops in nine governorates.

The outstanding participants from the first stage will then move the other four stages of the programme: Intilaaqah training, counselling and mentoring, specialised courses, and insolvency management.
The new Intilaaqah programme was re-launched as part of Shell’s 2015 Gift to the Nation initiative. Shell Intilaaqah and Riyada’s collaboration is an illustration of true partnership between the public sector represented by Riyada and the private sector represented by Shell in order to provide support and develop Omani entrepreneurs, said a statement.

The areas of cooperation agreed between Riyada and Shell were for Riyada to provide space for the ‘Shell Intilaaqah’ office within its main headquarters in Ghala, Muscat, in order to launch the new edition of Shell Intilaaqah; and for Shell to provide support to Omani entrepreneurs through well-qualified trainers to help the Omani entrepreneurs and SMEs through training, counselling and mentoring.

“We are happy with what has been implemented of the program up to now and we extend our thanks to Shell on this national initiative and true partnership with us to achieve our goals by supporting entrepreneurs and small & medium enterprises”, said Khalid Bin Al-Safi Al-Haraibi, acting CEO at Riyada.

Chris Breeze, Shell’s country chairman in Oman, stated: “I’m delighted to see Shell Intilaaqah and Riyada continue to join hands to support Oman’s vision and the enterprise development agenda in the sultanate. Intilaaqah is contributing, but much more is needed to overcome all the problems facing SMEs and I would encourage all other private sector companies to support Riyada in its national initiative of promoting entrepreneurship and the role of SMEs in Oman’s economy.”  - TradeArabia News Service