We are witnessing more efforts in the Arab world to help entrepreneurs, with different business plan competitions and incubation programmers. We have ASTF, QRNEC,  and now we have the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition 08. (Look at 12 ways to help you kick start your startup.)

Though we need at least dozens more to help flourish entrepreneurship in the Arab world. The MIT Arab Business Plan Competition is designed to encourage all entrepreneurs in the region to start their own company and, ultimately, create a nest of leading firms in the Arab world. It also brings to the Arab world all the MIT expertise in entrepreneurship and in running such competitions.

The equivalent of the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition in Boston is called the MIT 100K Entrepreneurship Competitions which has created a number of leading firms and thousands of jobs in USA with an aggregate value of over $10.5 billion dollars.

MIT (massachusetts institute of technology) is a leading school in Boston USA and has leading MBA program. Many of the brightest engineers and managers in USA came from MIT.

MIT Arab Business Plan Competition is open to all Arab nationals with a business idea. The only requirement is to be part of a team. You cannot enter the competition as one person. The competition believes that a viable team should comprise minimum 3 individuals.

As the competition is aimed at fostering entrepreneurship in the Arab world, At least 2 members of the team should be citizens of the Arab world, and the business concept should be implemented in a country within the Arab world.

Eligible Arab countries are: Lebanon (host country), Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen.

The winner of the Competition will receive prize money of USD 50,000. And the members of the winning team will be given the opportunity to attend the MIT Global Startup Workshop (GSW) . The first and second runner-ups will receive a check of USD 10,000 and USD 5000 respectively.

To apply for the competition users are required to fill the online application form(found here ) consisting of 16 questions that summarize their business idea and the means of implementing it. The application is available in English language only and should be filled in English too.

The deadline for submitting the applications is Thursday, January 8, 2009 at 23:59, GMT.

Announcing the first round winners, will be on 23 February 2009, where thirty teams will qualify for the second round of the competition. The winning teams will be invited - After doing their business planning homework - to on Monday, March 23, 2009 to attend a one-day workshop lead by Ken Morse, Managing Director of MIT Entrepreneurship Center in Cambridge, MA. During that day each team will also be designated a mentor who can help on the business plan, and lead them to a successful business plan submission meeting the deadline of 13 April 2009.

Announcing the second round winners will be on 19 May 2009, where 9 teams will qualify for the third round of the Competition.  On Round III: The 9 teams will be invited to Dubai to present their business plans on Thursday, June 11, 2009, where The 3 winning teams will be announced in a ceremony in Dubai on Friday, June 12, 2009.

Stumble it!

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