Muscat: His Highness Sayyid Belarab bin Haitham Al Said has chaired the first meeting of the Supervisory Committee of the Omani Promising Startups Programme on Thursday.
“The Supervisory Committee of the Omani Promising Startups Programme held its first meeting today, chaired by His Highness Sayyid Belarab bin Haitham Al Said. It aims to strengthen the system of companies based on innovation and advanced technology in the Sultanate of Oman, ” Oman News Agency (ONA), said in a statement.
The programme also aims to contribute to the dissemination of the culture of start-ups in educational institutions and to enhance community awareness of their importance, and comes in line with the Oman Vision 2040 within the priority of economic diversification and financial sustainability.
Her Excellency Halima bint Rashid Al-Zari, Chairwoman of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority, explained that the programme seeks to empower the owners of innovative ideas, support the establishment of start-up companies in this field and link them to business, investment and financing opportunities to achieve expansion in the local and global markets. In addition to working to raise the rank of the Sultanate of Oman in international indicators related to innovation, technology and ease of doing business.
Her Excellency indicated that the programme includes three main axes: capacity building for startups, financing and investment in startups, and the legislative environment that supports startups.
Al-Zari added that the programme implemented by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority came in cooperation with the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the Ministry of Economy, and the Omani Group for Communications and Information Technology (Ethkaa).
The meeting was attended by their Excellencies and representatives of government agencies, members of the programme’s supervisory committee.
