The Middle East Council for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship (MCSBE) organized this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) 2012 in Egypt.
Scarcely attended by businessmen and young entrepreneurs, the opening ceremony took place today at the Sawy Culture Wheel in Zamalek, as the kickoff of 95 entrepreneurial events, seminars and competitions, which will be taking place all over Egypt for the next week.
With a visible lack of governmental support, Ahmed Osman, Head of GEW Egypt, successfully managed to launch the GEW in Egypt, for the fourth year in a row. “In America, Barack Obama is opening the GEW, and in Britain, David Cameron is doing the same. But as we can see here today, this is not the case in Egypt,” Osman started his speech.
MCSBE partnered up with several universities, corporations, and NGOs in the entrepreneurial sector in an attempt to make this the best GEW yet.
The opening ceremony’s most prominent attendees were Ashraf Sheta, Head of MCSBE, Mohamed Abdel Moneim ElSawy, Founder of Sawy Culture Wheel, Amr Gohar, Senior Vice President of the International Council for Small Businesses, Omar Sabbour, Chairman of the Egyptian Junior Businessmen Association, and AbdelRahman Magdy, Founder and CEO of Egypreneur.
Sheta used the ceremony to introduce MCSBE’s new projects and initiatives for entrepreneurs, such as Mashrou3y (‘My Project’), Mostashaary (‘My Advisor’), Qawaneeny (‘My Laws’), Shereeky,(‘My Partner’) and Tamweely (‘My Funding’), and assured that the Council is aiming to change the society’s mentality to the better via entrepreneurial pillars.
Gohar was rather less optimistic, as he made it clear that his view on things has not changed since last year and advised the government to focus on Egypt’s economic file while making courageous decisions, and adopting young entrepreneurs to fight poverty and unemployment. “Turkey and China, for instance, have completely different political backgrounds, and nevertheless, they advanced on entrepreneurial grounds. Additionally, Brazil, Russia, India and China – most of them being former Third World countries – will own a third of the global GDP – thanks to entrepreneurial efforts,” he elaborated.
GEW’s official partners are (in a random order): International Labor Organization (ILO), Ashoka, Nile University, ICE Cairo, Get Opportunity, Think, Injaz Egypt, ElNahda ElMahrousa, USAID, British Council, Bey2ollak, Sawy Culture Wheel, Egyptian Junior Businessman Association, GEP, ECP, VC4Africa, Innoventures, American University in Cairo, Ma’an Team, ElMashrou’ TV, Ariika, Intel, Endeavor, Antakh, ABA, PhAI.