‘More efforts needed to create viable environment for startup ventures’

AMMAN — To bolster economy and encourage creativity and innovation, the government and business community need to create a viable environment for young startup ventures, stakeholders have recently noted.  

During an event on Wednesday, stakeholders argued that the spheres of innovation and technology in the Kingdom require “reinventing the wheel”, and encouraging reform that comes from within in order to move forward.

"Change is inevitable but the approach is what matters, "said René Klaff, head of the regional office in MENA at Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF).

“We cannot reject change, it will come anyway, whether we like it or not.  The question is how we deal with innovation; how we deal with its opportunities and how we solve the challenges the technological change undoubtedly imposes,” he said at a symposium organised by FNF in cooperation with the Information and Communications Technology Association (Int@j).

“In any society, but especially in a country like Jordan, it is very important that there is a good environment for startups, because it is a dynamic factor in the economy; it is easier for young people and young entrepreneurs to build up their businesses and much of the innovation we see in the economic field anywhere is due to startups.”

“It is a high priority for Jordan for both its government and its business community to create a viable environment for startups,” he added.

He said the younger generation needs functional courses of studies, within innovative departments and introductions to the latest structures in business and science.

“You have a high number of employees in the public sector here [in Jordan]. The government should concentrate more on setting the right frameworks and rules of competition and innovation, less on bureaucratic control and extraction through higher taxes, for example,” Klaff told The Jordan Times.

“[Around] 85 per cent of the whole GDP in Germany is gained in the small-and medium-sized enterprises; only roughly 15 per cent is from the big corporations,” he said.

“A successful economy needs a strong innovative small-and medium-sized [companies] sector, because this is the sector that creates jobs.” 

Nidal Bitar, CEO at Int@j, said innovation requires the settings that shape it.

“Innovation is very important for the ecosystem; we cannot enhance the entrepreneurship ecosystem without having innovative projects, it has to do with design-thinking, ideation and to be complemented with a business mindset — flourishing the idea and making it go locally, regionally and globally [known].”

 “If we do not pay more attention to innovation, we cannot keep moving forward… There [are] 14 criteria that measure the entrepreneurship index, two of them are related to entrepreneurship; which explains why innovation is important.”

The innovational and entrepreneurial sphere can be improved via two methods: Long-term approach, which must start from kindergarten — the way parents and teachers interact and teach children, and the second approach, which is working towards developing a “quick mindset”, where innovation would be taught through science, Bitar told The Jordan Times.

In order to overcome challenges in Jordan and the region, he said that one must view issues as opportunities to create businesses and to create long-term solutions, which would include students in the ecosystem to change their perspective. 

Bashar Hawmadeh, chairperson of Int@j, said a primary point in achieving progress in the field is to localise the service to benefit the local economy. 

Hawamdeh stressed that the public sector must encourage and endorse innovation and competition to involve as many entrepreneurs and thinkers to put their ideas into practice to achieve country-wide development.

“Although we are witnessing the era of technological development, more effort and time should be invested in businesses, since competitiveness among businesses [has] increased and everyone has access to information,” he said.

Laith Al Qassem, chairperson at Arabian Business Consultants for Development, said the mindset must be shifted to achieve progress. “Sometimes we set our own border line; sometimes we are not willing to introduce new approaches to the sector.”

Ahmad Hanandeh, president of the Tech Startups Leaders Council “StartupsJo”, said that breaking old patterns and creating new ones would improve the scene and build a brighter future for young entrepreneurs.

He added that stakeholders and new young leaders must study the market’s needs to learn which university majors are needed the most for the time being in Jordan or the region.

Abdulrahim Abu Basal, dean of King Talal Business Technology School at Princess Sumaya University for Technology, said that higher education should integrate desirability, science, feasibility and viability, to pave the way for innovation in technology.