Dr. Ghada M. Amer, the Vice president of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) declared that the closing date of the 8th Arab Business Plan Competition (TBPC) will be in June 5th, 2012, instead of May 15th, after that ASTF has received many requests to extend the period of participation in the TBPC. She added that ASTF received 76 proposed projects. The competition works to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and self-employment among the Arab youth, all over the Arab Region. She invited and called the Arab entrepreneurs in in various fields of technology, in the Gulf and Levant, North Africa countries to participate in the competition, who have innovative and creative ideas, and feasible for the transition to the ground, in the form of promising and emergent start-up companies, create jobs, and provide technological solutions, product development is located in the market, or provide new products to market, with competitive prices and high quality. The Arab young entrepreneurs can apply and register in the competition of TBPC, online, on the Website: http://www.tbpc.astf.net. She invited the entrepreneurs in Maghreb countries to participate in this cycle with their homologues the Machreq countries, for the first time in the history of the competition TBPC, the entrepreneurs can apply in both language Arabic and English. Dr. Ghada M. Amer said that the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) is committed to its mission and message the care and support to the Arab young entrepreneurs, because innovation is the mainstay and the future economic development, and communities that do not care about innovation, will suffer from a lot of problems and challenges. She pointed out that among the countries that have applied 16 Arab countries, and 6 Western countries: Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Palestine, Algeria, Yemen, Morocco, Iraq, Lebanon, Qatar, Sudan, Oman, Kuwait, and Arab teams from the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Germany, the United States, France and India. The Jury committee will verify the participant projects, before announcing the projects that respected that the standard terms in the first phase to participate in the E-Training phase. The TBPC is interested in the link between academic institutions and the economy and investment sectors. It is important that the project is based on product technology that is buyable and marketable. The business plan is transferable in an emerging technology startup, is looking for the finance in the technology fields. The Arab technology business plan competition (TBPC) covers the following sectors: information technology, telecommunication, semiconductors, electronics, medicine, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, water desalination, energy and the environment. Dr. Ghada M. Amer, the Vice president of the Arab Science and Technology Foundation said that we are waiting for the participation of the Arab women entrepreneurs. She added that the efforts of innovation, sustainable development and building a knowledge society, based on the innovation of both of male and female entrepreneurs, especially those Arab women are able to achievement and development. She pointed out that the E-Training will benefit entrepreneurs involved, will contribute to the talents and potential participants to complete the business plan, professional, and directly relevant to the needs of the market. Dr. Ghada Amer referred that the top three winners will win prizes money, beside the technical and professional training. The first winner will get 6000 US dollars, the second place will win 4000 US dollars and the third winner will get 3000 dollars, the will also participate in the annual Investing in Technology Forum organized by ASTF, that regroups the representatives of the Angel and Joint Venture Capital companies and funds, that are looking for the innovative and creative ideas to invest in. Dr. Ghada M. Amer identified the conditions of the participation in the 8th cycle of the TBPC that are: the composition of the participants in the work of up to 5 individuals, two-thirds of the team has to Arabic nationality or live in an Arab country, non-Arabs cannot be to participate in the competition. The TBPC is open to all Arab entrepreneurs, does not require availability of particular academic certificate, it is important that the staff includes members of the university's degree student in the undergraduate to the degree of Doctor (Ph.D.), through varying the associate professors, teacher, researcher and graduate student, from the faculties of Engineering, Science and Technology and Business Administration.
