Teams from thirteen countries participate in MIT Arab Business Plan Competition for 2010

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Enterprise Forum for the Arab Region (based in Lebanon) announced today that 30 semi finalists’ teams from 9 Arab countries that took part in the third edition of the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition were qualified to participate in Round II. This competition is sponsored by Abdul Latif Jameel Co., Saudi Arabia.

The Forum issued a statement, saying that Round I of the Competition was closed on January 12, 2010 with 1,852 applications submitted from 13 Arab countries. A total of 177 applications were qualified and graded by 62 jurors. Each application was reviewed and graded by three jurors, the final grade being the average of the three.

According to the Forum’s statement, the top 30 applications are from the following countries: fourteen from Egypt, six from Lebanon, two from Tunisia, two from the United Arab Emirates, two from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and one from each of Palestine, Yemen, Morocco and Jordan. Approximately 50% of the applications are from the field of technology and online services, whereas the rest pertained to the medical and healthcare field, environment, energy, education and engineering.

These 30 teams will be invited to take part in a workshop to be presided by Ken Morse, Executive Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center in Cambridge. The workshop, that will take place in Beirut on March 21-22, 2010 aims at supporting the 30 teams to finalize their business plans, which are due to be submitted by April 14. Based on these plans, 9 winning teams will be chosen to make oral presentations in Cairo on June 17, 2010.

Booz & Co, the global consulting firm, will participate in the workshop, training and coaching the qualified teams. Also Booz will continue the journey with the 9 to be selected teams to enhance their skills for the final projects’ presentation.

The MIT Arab Business Plan Competition is organized with the support of Abdul Latif Jameel Co. (LTD) – Saudi Arabia – which is the main partner of the initiative. Its support over a five-year period in the Arab world is vital for the initiative’s sustainability and progress.