The Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association (“SYEA”) held an assessment day for ten projects reaching the final stage of SYEA “Ventures”, which seeks to attract the greatest possible number of entrepreneurial ideas from young people initiating or seeking to establish private projects but who a short of training and financing.

In accordance with the rules of the competition, each team was given approximately half an hour to give a presentation, outlining its project in the final form before an assessment committee composed of Syrian businessmen, Mr Mohammad Abul Huda Al-Lahhaam, Ahmad Hashim, Imad Matouq and Iyad Kamaal. The committee is responsible for choosing one project from the final ten to win a prize of one million Syrian pounds, with the winner to be announced in a grand ceremony by the end of this July.

“The final decision for granting the prize rests with members of the assessment committee, which is comprised of senior business leaders with known expertise in various sectors, such as the industrial, commercial and service sectors,” said SYEA’s Board Chairman, Abdulsalam Haykal. “This committee deals with the submitted projects with great responsibility,” he continued, confirming SYEA’s adherence to the independence and impartiality of the assessment committee.

Mr Haykal further added that “in the opinion of the jury, the project which will receive the prize will be the project most capable of implementation and continuation. But that does not mean that the remainder of the projects are unimportant: we will work with all teams who desire to establish their projects by offering advice, aid and training.”

Mr Heikal referred to the “evolution in quality of those projects participating in the second version of the Ventures Program”, considering this evidence that SYEA “was able to strengthen the confidence of the Syrian youth, as well as the confidence of all contestants in the program, from the sponsors, trainers and supervisors to the community at large.” He further expressed his gratitude to all of “those who put their trust in SYEA.”

For his part, Program Director Michel Arcouche referred to “the giant strides made by the Ventures Program in terms of quality of the young people involved and the projects it attracted this year.” He expressed his belief that “the committee is an unenviable position, since all of the submitted projects are of a high quality.”

According to Arcouche, the assessment committee will choose the winning project for this year on this basis of the following set of criteria: “leadership, the ‘stand out’ nature of the project, the likelihood 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.”

“It is fair to say, after listening to the owners of the submitted projects, that the Ventures project has developed a lot since the last year, and the assessment committees confirm this. We now anticipating that ten projects will enter the Syrian market, whether they are the winner of the million or the other projects which benefit from the training and observations made by the assessment committee.”

The ten projects which reached the final stage of the program vary between service, cultural, industrial and agricultural projects. This includes a “farm of table mushrooms” which, as agronomist and project-owner Mohammad Fares explains, is based on “domestic production of this type of mushroom in economic quantities that fulfil some of the demand of the Syrian market, rather than importing it. This lowers its price, increases the foreign sector, gives scores of young people opportunities for work and generates a good profit.”

Regarding the benefit of “Ventures”, Muhammad says that the program enabled him and his project partners to “transform their idea into a methodical plan of action involving all aspects of the administrative and technical establishment of the project, market research, pricing and so forth.”

Similarly, Iynas Isa explains that her “Arab audio books” project is based on “encouraging people to read by republishing selected books, including scientific, technical and health books, in a new form that is enjoyable and sophisticated. The books will be read inside studios and have sound-effects added to them, making it possible to consume this cultural product in an easy, stimulating and attractive way.”

Iynas, who was assisted by her husband and project partner in devising new ways of marketing her products, hopes to win the prize of one million Syrian pounds. However, she adds: “The skills which the team possesses after the training rounds organised by the Ventures Program, and after listening to the advice of the experts, guarantee that we can convince any financer, or obtain a loan, and begin the project even if we do not win the million.”