MUSCAT: The Public Establishment for Industrial Estates – Madayn, represented by the National Business Centre (NBC), signed yesterday (Wednesday) an agreement with Institute of Modern Science and Technical Training (IMSATT) and Advanced Business Consultants (ABC) to implement ‘Entrepreneurship Development Programme for Enterprise Formation’. As per the agreement, NBC alongside IMSATT and ABC aim at developing the skills of job seekers among the Omani youth to create successful self-employed enterprises through intensive technical and business skills training and providing mentoring support during their stabilisation period of their projects, in addition to instilling awareness on entrepreneurship based on prior vocational and technical training.

The programme includes identifying potential business opportunities, entrepreneurship development, training entrepreneurs in theoretical and practical vocational and technical skills, enterprise management, developing business plans and project management, which will enable the entrepreneurs to establish and fully run their own businesses and companies after intensive training. The training will be funded by the National Training Fund (NTF) and the enterprise formation after training will be funded by the relevant financing institutions.

The agreement was signed by Nasser Al Malki, Director General of the National Business Centre (NBC), Ahmed Al Riyami, CEO of Institute of Modern Science and Technical Training (IMSATT), and Al Harith Al Khallili, Managing Director at Advanced Business Consultants (ABC). Commenting on the agreement, Nasser Al Malki pointed out that this cooperation comes along the lines of Madayn’s efforts to support Small and Medium Enterprises and give emphasis to their role in developing the national economy. He noted that Madayn established NBC to offer promising Omani entrepreneurs a platform to develop their business ideas into growing ventures. NBC today provides technical, administrative, logistical and awareness support for the emerging projects to help shaping and developing projects of economic benefit and value adding to the country, which will consequently allow them to expand and grow in the local and foreign markets.

Ideation Programme

Meanwhile, NBC announced the launch of the second edition of ‘Ideation Programme’. Supported by Omantel and held in cooperation with Global Retail Company, the one-month programme aims at developing and transforming innovative ideas of 25 participants into actual projects. The Ideation Programme aspires to support these creative ideas and help shaping business plans that allow the participants to establish their own projects. The programme comprises intensive remote training workshops to stimulate creativity and innovation, which focus on the significance of planning and preparing market research, highlight how to attract new investments, in addition to conducting individual remote mentoring sessions for each participant to develop their ideas through effective methods.