LAST week, 'The Little Engineer' from Lebanon was recognised as one of the Middle East and North Africa's most promising entrepreneurs and awarded with $50,000 as start-up capital at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Arab Business Plan Competition, hosted annually by the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Arab Region. BioBusiness from Egypt was named first runner-up, with a $15,000 prize to help realise their business aspirations. Moreover, Arabic Coach from Yemen and EG-Bioinformatics from Egypt received $5,000 each in start-up funding, with all teams receiving mentorshipfrom international business consultants and some of the Middle East's most prominent decision-makers throughout the competition process. "Taking part in the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition has enabled us to refine our entrepreneurial vision while really understanding the dedication and attention required to create and manage a successful business. We hope to help inspire our fellow entrepreneurs in the Middle East and encourage them to be a part of the 2011 competition ��" it's been an incredible learning and development experience," Rana el Chemaitelly, The Little Engineer, enthusiasticly said. "The distinguished judges and everyone who took part in the 2010 MIT Arab Business Plan Competition were tremendously impressed with the level of forethought, due diligence and good old-fashioned hard work that had gone into the initial 1,852 applications received, as well as the intensive presentations made this week by the nine finalist teams from all over the Arab world," explained Fadi Jameel, representative of ALJ Company, the sponsor of the competition. Business leaders, family members, mentors, friends and supporters from across the Middle East came to encourage the final stage of the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition in Cairo. New business plans presented in industries such as energy, engineering, healthcare, internet-based business solutions, software and telecoms highlighted the current level of entrepreneurship being seen in the Arab world at present.
