Young business leaders set to vie for 'Best Company of the Year' Award

Judging criteria includes a review of financial and management reports created by the students on the real life challenges of running a business in addition to a presentation on their product innovation.

In total, students will battle it out for five accolades including the highly coveted Best Company of the Year award sponsored by ExxonMobil.

Other awards include the 2012 Barwa Bank Award for Best Marketing Plan, the 2012 Nasser Bin Khaled Award for Company with the Best Social Impact, the 2012 HSBC Award for Most Innovative Product, and the 2012 FedEx Access Award.

Commenting on the upcoming competition Soraya Salti, Injaz Al-Arab Regional Director said, "The competition acts as a forum through which students can gain an understanding of the real-life processes for establishing a business in a safe environment. At each stage we seek to build their confidence to become future entrepreneurs who have the potential to be a driving force in their local economies. We believe in the boundless potential of Arab youth and this competition shows us just how much talent there is. Our job - the private sector, educators and the government - is to help them unleash it."

Earlier this year, each of the contending countries held their own individual National Company Program Competition where students spent four months training on entrepreneurship, financial literacy and work readiness. The winning team from each country will now represent their nation in Qatar. Teams will be represented from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen.

"Qatar Foundation is dedicated to promoting education and development through partnership. The Injaz Al-Arab Young Arab Entrepreneurs Competition offers an unusual opportunity for young Arab people to collaborate with each other and with professional businesspeople in order to improve their entrepreneurial skills while learning about the cultures and markets of their region. We look forward to welcoming all participants in Qatar next month, and to learning about their ideas for business innovations, and for new products and services," added H.E. Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Ph.D., President of Hamad Bin Khalifa University and Vice President, Education, Qatar Foundation.

"At ExxonMobil, we believe entrepreneurship is a driving force of both local and global economies, and it is important that Arab youth are able to be part of this knowledge-based economy. To help youth unleash their potential, the private sector has an important role to play in mentoring them so that they may develop the right skills to enter a competitive workforce," added Bart Cahir, President and General Manager of ExxonMobil Qatar Inc.

The Injaz Al-Arab Young Arab Entrepreneurs Competition was established in 2007 and is recognised as the region's leading entrepreneurship competition for Arab youth. Since its inception, the annual event has been hosted by various Injaz Al-Arab member nations including Oman, Lebanon, Morocco and Jordan.

Injaz Al-Arab would like to thank the Qatar Foundation for its patronage of the competition as well as this year's sponsors: ExxonMobil as Platinum Sponsor, Nasser Bin Khaled and Barwa Bank as Gold Sponsors, HSBC, FedEx, MEPI and Qatar First Investment Bank as Partners, the Museum of Islamic Art and the Qatar Museum Authority as Event Partners, and Injaz Qatar, this year's host nation.