Saudi gazette

JEDDAH — This year young men and women who are participating in the ninth Young Businessmen Exhibition in Jeddah are interested in creativity. One of the unique businesses is a group of three young women who started a theater business. Sara Omar, a theater trainer, said she has graduated from Islamic Studies major but became more interested in art, music and culture. She then started with her friends their theater project — Primera. The group started a few years ago by performing some plays in cooperation with over 20 girls who Sara trains. However, at that time the performance used to take place only in schools and sometimes in universities. Now Sara and her group hope to expand the business by performing in more places. “One challenge is the absence of places to perform, there are only a few places that have theaters in Jeddah, like the university and the literary club, we hope to get more easy to reach places so we can perform for everyone,” she said.

Ahmad Barabbaa, the executive director of Mustsharak, said their services focus on empowering youth starting from young age. One of their programs is Tharaa Program, which targets children from the age of six. They give children creative classes to increase their financial awareness. These classes can be afterschool or done in classrooms in cooperation with schools. Another program targets individuals between 15-19 years old to help them know how to start businesses. Among their programs is the Trips Program, which takes children on trips around the world to introduce them to new experiences.

Jaber Al-Hamdi, the sales representative at Al-Hamdi Transport, noted that they have started a few years ago with just one truck that moves goods from one place to the other in Jeddah. Now, however, they have a fleet that provides logistic services to various cities inside and outside the Kingdom. The logistics services, he noted, is a growing industry and they hope to expand through building trust with their clients.

Prince Mishal Bin Majed, governor of Jeddah, inaugurated the four-day exhibition at Al-Harthi Exhibition Center on Thursday. The exhibition has 250 young businessmen participants. Faris Al-Turki, the head of the young businessmen committee at the JCCI, said that they want this year to increase youth awareness about Vision 2030 and help enhance their business skills. The expo, he added, should provide great B2B chances and offers various workshops that can help young businesses overcome certain challenges they face in accounting and marketing. — SG