Three female entrepreneurs participating in Ventures have taken out the program’s top three prizes, with Einas Isa winning the prize of one million Syria pounds for her entrepreneurial educational project “Arabic audio books”. Honorary prizes went to Aida Khalil, for her “Centre for Qualification and Training” project, and Reem Al-Bawabeeji for her “Infant nursing model”, with all three groups receiving a year’s free membership with SYEA.

During the ceremony, held by the Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association (“SYEA”) to celebrate the conclusion of the Ventures program and announce the results, Program Director Michel Arcouche said that the results, published by an independent jury of business experts, confirmed that “women in our society are innovators and have an active role in developing the economy and creating job opportunities.” At the same time, he pointed out that all Ventures participants, including the entrepreneurs, trainers, supervisors and the competition’s jury, “made remarkable achievements.”

Mr. Arcouche said that “SYEA”, after launching two rounds of the Ventures program in 2008 and 2009, “was able to win the trust of young Syrian innovators and help them in various ways” and thanked SyriaTel and Aramex for sponsoring the program this year. He invited everyone to “continue their participation and support Ventures 2010.”

The President of SYEA’s Board, Mr. Abdulsalam Haykal, said that Ventures is a “progressive dream for SYEA” and that the conclusion of the program “will be a new beginning for other outstanding groups of young entrepreneurs”. He added that “SYEA has committed to support all groups participating in the program through continuing to guarantee training and searching for the sources of the necessary funding.”

Mr. Haykal invited all young Syrians to “be endowed with a spirit of entrepreneurship and initiative and to reject the fear of failure”, and to stick with what he called “the five things that distinguish entrepreneurs from others: freedom, dreaming, determination, vivacity and passion.”

Mr. Haykal, in his address during the ceremony that was attended by a number of government figures, entrepreneurs, businessmen and guests, invited young Syrians to “shoulder their responsibility towards their society and nation.” He added that “today Syria is witnessing a historic opportunity, allowing us as young people to plan our bright future.”

After receiving the prize, first-place winner Einas Isa expressed her overwhelming happiness for her success, which came out of “the perseverance, creativity, effort and hard work of the team”, which also included her husband. She also expressed her gratitude to all those who helped her in transforming her idea into an investment project that “will soon see the light”.

“I have lived all my life in the United Arab Emirates, and have now been in Syria nearly a year,” said Ms. Isa. “During this time, I have seen how beautiful our country is and that, just as we give to it, it gives to us in return.”

The leader of one of the teams that reached the final stage of Ventures but did not take out the prize, said that “the prize is something great and encouraging, but the main goal for the team is not merely winning the prize. The extent of skills and knowledge which the team acquired from Ventures program will allow us to transform our ideas into businesses and achieve profit and satisfaction by ourselves.” 

Entrepreneur Mohammed Al-Fares clarified that not winning the prize does not mean stopping the implementation of his team’s “mushroom farm” project. He added that the experience with SYEA and the guidance lectures that all participating teams received gave his team “a lot of knowledge and the ability to research the project from different angles, in addition to the mechanisms created by Ventures for cooperation between the entrepreneurial projects.”

The Ventures program, which SYEA has now run for the second year in a row, endeavours to attract the greatest possible entrepreneurial ideas from young Syrians who are taking the initiative to establish their private projects but who are short of training and financing. The Ventures program, including the selection of projects and the training of entrepreneurs, extends for approximately six months, passing through several elimination stages before the selection of the winning team.

Venture is a national project aiming to motivate Syrian entrepreneurs to implement their small and medium-sized projects through providing them with the fundamental tools to transform their business ideas into practical institutions in the economic market, returning benefits to themselves, the community and to the national economy.

The process of selecting the winning team depends on a number of criteria: entrepreneurship and the ‘stand out’ nature of the project, the possibility of implementation, market size, competition, growth potential, harmony amongst team members and application of their skills for the project’s success, and the economic and social impact of the new project