Madinah industrial prize to support SMEs

(MENAFN- Arab News) JEDDAH: Madinah Gov. Prince Faisal bin Salman said the launch of the Madinah industrial prize comes in fulfillment of the vision of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to strive for the building a strong economy standing on the strong foundation in which sources of income diversify and through which savings and generation of employment opportunities in the public and private sectors grow besides encouraging small and medium enterprises for growth and make them a strong economic base for the country.
'The goal of the prize is to encourage the community to participate in emerging or existing industrial projects and enabling them to own and manage their private industries and providing them with all that would contribute to transform their ideas to industries and opening new industrial avenues supporting the national economy' the prince said.
The prize aims at attracting the largest number of ideas and industrial projects from which a specialized team will choose the best entries on the basis of scientific yardsticks aimed at social and economic growth in Madinah the prince said.
The owners of the nominated projects will join intense training program to make them capable of founding their private industry and competing to win material prizes. The winning candidates will also be given five industries for free for one year.
The award program to speed up industrial activities is the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia to enable men and women pioneers of industries to develop and operate their projects in the industrial sector.
The program will provide the prize winners with 14 ready made factories of medium size with specialized consultation hours in addition to simplifying financing procedures.
The program will support the small and medium enterprises and the success of 100 factories over the next four years.
This program is supported and sponsored by Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technical Zones (MODON) Human Resources Development Fund Saudi Bank for Credit and Saving and Aramco Center for business entrepreneurship.