SAUDI Arabia’s economic transformation will be accelerated by start-ups as the country moves from the commodity-based economy to knowledge-based one, in line with the Kingdom’s economic Vision 2030 driven by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, who has recently concluded a visit to Silicon Valley and urged the global tech companies to invest in Saudi Arabia and help its economic transformation. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has been mulling investing in a number of global startups in recent years. Saudi Arabia has been depending on its oil and gas resource for more than 80 years since the discovery of oil in the 1930s. But as the market for oil and gas remains volatile, depending completely on it is not sustainable or scalable. Saudi government thinks it’s high time that they diverse their economy to focus on innovation driven market and economy. Juma Al Kait, assistant undersecretary of UAE Ministry of Economy, opened the AIM Startup conference on Wednesday, on the last day of Annual Investment Meeting, talking about AIM Startup and its massive platform and introducing Dr. Nabeel Koshak, dean, MBSC, KSA as the chief guest. AIM Startup is promising platform for modern technology. UAE Ministry of Economy is putting their whole effort to reshape the society, giving start-ups high importance. Al Kait said, “AIM Startup is an ideal platform for promoting startup, which is a huge part of Annual Investment Meeting where more than 140 nations took part this year.” He added, “Governments around the world is competing here at AIM to make a field for the youth with innovation and creativity, and I’m sure they are wise enough to take the whole benefit out of it and take the challenge and opportunities. “We are proud that UAE is the country where we are attracting and capable of retaining the startup talents. Government will always give their best effort to support startup and gain FDI to continue supporting them.” Dr. Nabeel, who talked about the transformation of Saudi Arabia’s national economy and how it is effecting startups, was with the Saudi Crown Prince on his historical tour around the world. He thinks as the world is changing around Saudi, they cannot afford to be slow. They believe that, they are in the right track and have hard working, energetic youth, who holds 70 percent of population to support the change. Dr. Nabeel also said, as they have clear vision about the future of diversified economy, they are capable to have a fast pace change and support the massive projects taking place in Saudi. With the massive support of Saudi Crown Prince, KSA is trying to diverse its economy by giving more importance to SME and startups. Along with Dr. Nabeel Koshak, Dr. Kevin Cullen, VP, innovation and economic development, KAUST, KSA, was also part of the discussion panel. Kevin said, “He sees massive potential in Saudi students.” He talked about the social, economic and cultural changes in today’s Saudi. The Institutions in Saudi Arabia are now teaching the student of bachelors and masters to pursue the career of being an entrepreneur. And the first step for that is to accept failures. Statistically 3.8 times people will fail before succeeding. So, failure is part of the learning process. If we are not failing that means, we are not trying. Students are taught to shape their mind to accept failure and quickly recover from it and start fresh. Changing and shaping the mind-set of the student is most important according to the officials from KSA. The students need to practice more international and Saudi entrepreneur cases to support start-up and give them their research to create an impact. Dr Nabeel suggested that unleashing the raw talent of Saudi Arabia and highlighting the heroes from the desert will boost the economy and will take it to another dimension. And these heroes should be recognized based on the impact from their research paper to the society, than the number of papers published. Collecting funds for startup research is also important. Corporate Saudi Arabia is getting more active day by day. Saudi Arabia is now easing from the bureaucratically rigidities. This is the right time when startups should be promoted. High schools and primary schools are also part of the innovation and diversification. Some projects were injected in education system to teach them how to start own business and mainly how to commercialize it. Commercialization of a good product or service is the most crucial part, which mostly people do not talk about. But actual secret of a startup being successful is the commercialization. Kevin said, “They are introducing these things in children terms to the primary school children to come up with their own business plane.” He added, “How amazing it is to see an 8 years old kid planning to market his ideas.” Relevance and context are two important part of commercialization according to the officials from KSA. Because if there is no market pull, however you try to push the product, it will not work. Dr. Nabeel said, “When I get invited to a startup event, I get very excited as the energy I see in youth, inspires me. Their creativity, innovations, dynamic nature always amazed me and I am really happy to say that I have been part of many startups in Saudi Arabia.” “It needs guts to change and accept changes from the typical practices that have been practiced from centuries. But Saudi Arabia is coping up rapidly. All credit goes to the now Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman.” AIM Startup was launched in 2017 as an initiative of the UAE Ministry of Economy to connect promising startups with investors and business partners from other parts of the world — set in the heart of the UAE’s Annual Investment Meeting, the world’s leading FDI platform for emerging markets and held under the aegis of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai. AIM Startup is an ideal platform for startup companies looking to raise capital, expand into new markets and forge meaningful business relationships with major investors, business leaders, representatives of international institutions and government entities. — SG