The 5th MENAinc Regional Workshop on Innovation & Entrepreneurship was jointly organized by infoDev and the Bahrain Business Incubation Center (BBIC). The workshop was further supported by the Bahrain Ministry of Finance, the Bahrain Development Bank, UNIDO, OECD-MENA and INSME.

The core objective of the 5th MENAinc Workshop “Shaping the Future through Innovation and Entrepreneurship” was to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by strengthening regional collaboration.

The conference brought together around 150 experts and stakeholders from around the MENA region to exchange knowledge and ideas on how Information & Communication Technology (ICT)-led innovation and entrepreneurship can drive growth and competitiveness in emerging economies, and how business incubation can be positioned as a strategic tool for economic development.

The aims of the conference were to:

• raise Awareness about the role of innovation and entrepreneurship for economic development and competitiveness in the Middle East and North Africa;
• provide information on business incubation as a tool for fostering and strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship;
• intensify knowledge exchange within MENAinc and with other networks on good practices in business incubation;
• expand the MENAinc network by attracting and integrating new members;
• provide training to incubator managers.

MENAinc is a network of incubator professionals in the Middle East and North Africa. The Network was founded in Amman, Jordan, with support from infoDev. Today MENAinc has 15 members from 8 countries. This workshop is a continuation of a regional collaboration process that began in Casablanca, Morocco in January 2005.

Conference materials, including work program, presentations, speeches, and media coverage will be available at infoDev's Incubator Support Center at http://www.iDisc.net/mena.