The Tunis Workshop, hosted by Elgazala Technopark, brought together about 170 participants from nine countries in the MENA region: Bahrain, Iran, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. Experience in business incubation from other regions was contributed by experts from Germany, and infoDev representatives provided a global perspective to the workshop.  

The workshop raised awareness on the role of entrepreneurship and innovation in economic growth, and also served to kick-off the network project developed by the network members. The growing momentum created by the network is probably best illustrated by the joining of two new members who signed the MENAinc Charter during the workshop.

The workshop's first day was marked by an opening address by Mrs. Khadija Hamouda Ghariani, Secretary of State of the Tunisian Ministry for Communication Technologies. She discussed the ways in which the Tunisian government is putting emphasis on the development of technology, innovation, and business creation in the ICT sector. She also highlighted the support programs designed to establish technology parks and business incubators at all universities in order to further spur innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the country.

The range of issues related to business incubation was illustrated by the keynote presentations of the first day: Ms. Ellen Olafsen, infoDev, presented experiences from infoDev's Incubator Initiative, identifying a range of issues related to business incubation in developing countries.

Mr. Ahmed Gdoura, BID Consulting, described the potential for education and research in Tunisia, and the results of action taken to increase innovation capacities, promote life-long learning, and thereby take advantage of the entrepreneurial potential in the country. He also described the challenges that are still to be met for reaching a sustainable innovation-based economy.

Mr. Alaya Bettaieb, President of Tunisia’s Venture Capital and Private Equity Association discussed financial aspects related to start-up enterprises and SMEs in Tunisia and identified important challenges for business development. 

The “Bahrain Model” of business incubation was presented by Dr. Hashim Hussein, UNIDI, ITPO, Investment and Technology Promotion Office and Arab Center for Entrepreneurship and Investment Training. This successful model has been implemented in a number of developing countries (e.g. Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Laos, Mozambique, Sudan, Uruguay, and Yemen) and funds are available for introducing this model to more developing countries.

The workshop also provided participants with an opportunity to network - to meet and exchange knowledge and experiences with each other.

Tunisia does not only have seven operating technology parks and 24 business incubators, but there are also networking activities such as associations that promote entrepreneurship and link the business incubators in Tunisia. The hosting El Gazala Technology Park, presented by Nejib Abida, was the first in the country and shows a positive track record. The relation between universities and technology parks / incubators and instruments for increasing the interest in entrepreneurship in the education and science sector are important issues to work on for further developing the technology park. Although there is a significant number of start-up enterprises sourced from universities, a need for strengthening this development is seen. Relations and cooperation between tenant firms in the technology park and clients of the business incubator are important for supporting the positive development of new enterprises.

Syria: Presenting business incubation in Syria Rima Shaban, Director of the ICT incubator in Damascus, emphasized the importance of SMEs for economic development as well as entrepreneurship and SME support as a means to fight unemployment and poverty. Syria has a long tradition of entrepreneurship (“Syrian entrepreneurs are legendary in the region and in most of Africa”) and SMEs present 80% of the private sector workforce. Since 2003 programs for supporting business development have been implemented, e.g. a small loans program, business incubators, a Fund for Integrated Rural Development, and the MAWRED Women business incubator. The Syrian Computer Society (SCS), a non-governmental, non-profit organization aimed at introducing IT into Syrian economy, education, and administration established the first ICT incubator in Syria that is a pilot project for a series of incubators throughout Syria, and a first step towards building science and technology parks. Since starting in 2006, the incubator has helped seven start ups (two are graduating) and currently has six new candidates.

Turkey: As an example of an advanced system of business incubation Hayri Solmaz, Kosgeb Ankara, presented an overview on “Technologically oriented incubators and technology parks in Turkey”. In Turkey technology incubators (TEKMERs) are service centers of “KOSGEB”, a governmental organization (affiliate of Ministry of Industry and Trade). The operation of these incubators started in 1991 based on an agreement between Kosgeb and universities. Today 20 incubators with 1256 enterprises are operating in Turkey. Financial support offered to technology start-ups in Turkey ranges from seed capital and financial support for consulting to help with securing intellectual property rights. The current developments in Turkey are characterized by 14 operational technology parks at hosting about 400 tenant firms.

Bahrain: Based on the “Bahrain Model” the Bahrain Business Incubator Center, presented by Omer Oz, BBIC Managing Director and also MENAinc Network Coordinator, has already been working successfully for several years. Currently an extension of the incubator is under construction – with the land for this purpose already provided at the beginning of BBIC’s development. Strong support from the Bahrain development bank helps the incubator work successfully, and the Government of Bahrain is also aware of the need for strengthening the entrepreneurial basis of the country. Based on the success of BBIC, more incubators are now in the planning stage - for example, the establishment of an incubator for medicine technology will be built together with a new hospital, an incubator for light industry is projected, and a handicrafts center will be extended to provide systematic support to this sector.

Qatar: Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), presented by Lindsey Jones, is a large project under construction. The basis for QSTP is the Qatar Foundation, founded in 1995 as an independent, nonprofit organization committed to the development of Qatar and its people. Qatar Foundation established branch campuses as a unique model by partnering with top quality institutions of higher education in the world. The objective is to develop, offer and sustain academic programs of the highest quality in an Education City (EC) as home for degree-granting internationally recognized institutions, based on comprehensive quality standards.

Libya: The Libyan network of Business Incubators, ELITE, has entered the process of realization. This project started in the third quarter of 2006 by the Libyan National Bureau for Research & Development, the Ministry of Manpower, and the VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, Germany (VDI-IT). Feasibility studies and business plans have already been developed in cooperation with the VDI-IT and the launch of the first two incubators (Biotechnology and Engineering Technology Incubator) only depends on acquiring appropriate buildings, as Omar Annakou, Manager of ELITE presented.

Iran already has a number of experienced business incubators and Habibollah Asghari,  Rooyesh Business Incubator, focused on describing lessons learned from business incubation management. 43 Incubators and 15 Science Parks operate in Iran with 4,500 full staff members in SMEs and about 900 SMEs incubated. Half of the incubators belong to universities. In Iran much effort has been invested into monitoring and measuring the impact of business incubators and now emphasis is put on creating new products/services on the ICT market, upgrading existing products/services, establishing and creating new ICT companies, upgrading existing ICT companies, and internationalizing Iranian ICT companies. The Teheran Business Incubator Network, TINet, started in September 2004 and has the mission to help incubators and their tenant companies to build an environment supportive of collaboration, and to use the network as an enabler to empower individuals to participate creatively in their societies to promote sustainable economic growth.

Palestine: The Managing Director of PICTI, Palestine Information and Communication Technology Incubator, Laith Kassis, provided concrete experience and tools developed by PICTI; for example
- Business Plan Competitions that proved to be an effective instrument for attracting new clients to the incubator and also for raising awareness for entrepreneurship in general
- A student internship program for raising the ability of small businesses to develop innovative products and services, as well as for providing practical business experience to students as a basis for business planning and starting enterprises
- Working with financiers for finding ways to provide investment and operational capital to start-up businesses. This activity is targeted at one of the most important gaps identified by all incubators in the region and results are far from satisfactory.

Discussion showed that financing the start of new companies as well as their growth is a critical bottleneck. Although this issue is problematic all around the world, in the MENA region the negative impact of this lack is stronger because the financial sector, (e.g. “traditional” bank loan financing for SMES) in general needs to be developed towards the needs of SMEs.

MENAinc Network

In his introduction to discussing the development “after Amman”, Omer Oz, network coordinator of MENAinc, presented the MENAinc project funded by infoDev and coming activities. The Focal Point in Bahrain will soon employ a new staff person to strengthen the capacity for network coordination.

Discussing in smaller parallel workgroups along the “activities” planned as part of the MENAinc project participants generated “network content” and structured the collaboration for the weeks to come. The workgroup sessions focused on

- Tools an good practices for business incubation management

- Training programs for business incubator staff

- Technical Assistance provided by members of the network to each other

- Stakeholders Contacts

- Monitoring and Measuring Business Incubator Performance

- Marketing for business incubators

This work significantly contributed to strengthening the “network feeling” and providing better information about the special experiences network members have developed and are ready to share with others.

Another plenary session began for the 5th MENAinc Workshop to be held in Bahrain, September 3 – 6, 2007, which will be the “official inauguration” of MENAinc. Consequently “Raising Awareness for Entrepreneurship and Innovation” in the MENA region (and beyond) is one of the main aims for this event. Other important components are

- continuation of work within the network aimed at providing content and supporting each other

- providing training in specific fields as required by participants and according to the results of the respective activity of the MENAinc project

Cooperation with other infoDev Regional Networks is important for exchanging information, experiences, and available tools on the broadest possible basis. Therefore the activity of the ECAbit network (Eastern Europe / Central Asia) in cooperation with the infoDev ASIA Regional Network for developing cross-border technology transfer was also discussed as a means to strengthen MENAinc's activities and action plans. This includes the business-to-business transfer as well as the science-to-business sector and members of MENAinc indicated interest in further collaboration.