Sultanate to host World Summit on Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Under the support of the United Nation Development Programme, the United Nations Economic & Social Commission for Western Asia, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America & the Caribbean, this unique event—the first of its kind in the World— is hosted by the Sultanate of Oman, and represented by Public Establishment for Industrial Estates. The advisory board of the Summit includes who's who is business, civil society, innovation and governments, including UNDP, MIT Entrepreneurship Center, The Chopra Center, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Ghandi Institute, Center of Partnership Studies, PepsiCo, Saudi Aramco, Entovation International, Telcel International, Google, TamKang University, Computer Associates, Arab Media Forum for Environment and Development and Arab International Women Forum.

The driving force behind hosting this historic endeavor in Muscat, the Sultanate of Oman, is H.E. Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry of the Sultanate.

"This Summit is the first of its kind to take a look at how best to unleash innovation and entrepreneurship to build a framework for a prosperous community of tomorrow, and the global actions needed to enable its realization,"

said H.E. Maqbool bin Ali Sultan.

Together with an impressive collection of over 90 renowned speakers from across the globe, this landmark meeting of minds will lay down the foundations to make innovation and entrepreneurship work for emerging nations, and help them achieve global competitiveness by focusing on key initiatives and actions through three days of roundtables, town hall meetings, interactive workshops, and thematic meetings - where all will express the Summit theme "A Better
Generation in the Making."

According to the UNDP Human Development report, one in five Arabs lives on less than $2 a day, this Summit will propose tangible initiatives that must be followed by Arab Governments to improve investments in Arab R&D - which is less than one-seventh the world average—as a way to eliminate poverty of capabilities and opportunities.

To the Arab World, "this Summit sets the stage to create a more vibrant, dynamic and innovative private sector and middle class, ensuring hope for more than half of the Arab population," said Sam Hamdan, Chairman of Global Leadership Team, the strategic planning and execution leader of the Summit.

Unlike any other event, the historic endeavor is the only summit of its kind that rises above the customary dialogue of "what is needed" and advances to actual implementation of concrete actions required to help solve the world's most
difficult challenges.