Business & Money | Saturday 23 April, 2016 10:09 am |

The Entrepreneurs Forum and Exhibition has launched an initiative to recruit 10,000 young Saudis after training them for sales jobs.
The forum was inaugurated recently by Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal at the Jeddah Center for Forums and Events.
The forum, under the title “The Nation's Energy”, involves dozens of investment opportunities for young men and women in the business sector to establish both small and large enterprises, and promotes alliances through franchises, partnerships and agencies.
Prince Khaled went around the exhibition which houses more than 200 exhibitors from different regions of the Kingdom, UAE and Kuwait, and admired the products that were presented by pioneers and entrepreneurs.
He said that the youth present a promising future for the nation, adding that the success of the small and medium projects are the basic building blocks of the world of business and finance. 
Ziad bin Bassam Al-Bassam, vice president of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI), said that in organizing this initiative, the JCCI will help to open up job opportunities for more than 10,000 young Saudis in the sales markets of the region.
He also said that it will give the youth an opportunity to invest in their own businesses thanks to the support of the Makkah governorate and the developmental integration center.
Al-Bassam added that they are planning to adopt the idea of launching a range of government service centers to provide a variety of services in one place and to contribute to the success of this initiative, taking it from a dream to reality.
He thanked the governor for his support in launching initiatives and projects to support youth and to enhance their abilities, and said that all these initiatives are helping the youth to enhance their skills in innovation, creativity and to become entrepreneurs and professionals. He emphasized the fact that the forum has become a meeting point for all entrepreneurs and a platform to launch exciting projects and initiatives.
Mazan Al-Daud, director of the Small and Medium Enterprises Commission, expressed his pride in the event, and wished the participants a successful future.
Mohammed Sweileh, chairman of the Young Businessmen's Committee, said that the forum has been successful in creating an open junction of entrepreneurs in order to remove the age barrier that often plagues business forums in the country. With the support of longstanding industry professionals and government bodies, the forum is therefore a platform for partnership between established companies and young entrepreneurs.
Some 15,000 visitors are expected to attend while the participating youth are projected to generate an estimated value of SR20 million from expected contracts.