Video Interview with Syrian Serial Entrepreneur Abdulsalam Haykal, Founder of Transtek and President of Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association.
Continuing our series of video interview I did during World Economic Forum (WEF), Dead Sea, Jordan. I present to you today a video interview with Serial Entrepreneur from Syria: Abdulsalam Haykal.
Abdulsalam is the only WEF selected Young Global Leader from Syria, he is the founder of CEO of Transtek Information Systems an ERP vendor based in Syria, and Haykal Media which publishes a number of magazines: Forward Magazine, Aliqtisadi and Happynings. Moreover, He is the president of Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association (SYEA.)
In this interview we discussed many topics with Abdulsalam including the status of the IT industry in Syria, the impact of US sanctions in the IT sector in Syria ( he said it forced them to be more innovative, and I’ll add that it led to less competition 
) his views about WEF 09 Dead Sea Summit, SYEA’s recent activities, the challenges he faced when starting Transtek and his other online projects such as: Every Syrian Site a Syrian site directory and Syrian History an online museum of Syria.
The interview was originally live streamed in ArabCrunch channel on Qik, using my Nokia 5800, so please mind the video and sound quality:
Share and Enjoy
Tags: Abdulsalam Haykal, ArabCrunch Video, Every Syrian Site, Interview, Qik, SYEA, Syria, Syrian History, Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association, Transtek, Video Interview, WEF 09, WEF dead sea, WEF Jordan 09, YGL, Young Global Leader
TripleM | May 24th, 2009 at 11:44 AM #
this got to be my favorite interview so far.. I’m an ERP geek.. really I really adore such technology especially HRIS modules … I was amazed to know that companies in Syria are into these type of business..
thanks Gaith
Yousef Jum'a | May 25th, 2009 at 1:58 AM #
Dear Ghaith,
It is good to know that Syrian innovation is alive and kicking even with the sanctions.
I was only puzzled by your statement that associates Innovation with “less competition”. How did you figure that? We all know that more competition fosters more innovation.
Would love to hear your view on this.
Thanks.
Gaith Saqer | May 25th, 2009 at 2:07 AM #
Yousif, I did not make an association, but it is a fact: if you do not have Oracle, Microsoft and other US based ERP vendors it means less competition for you if you are in the ERP business for example
Yousef Jum'a | May 25th, 2009 at 8:24 AM #
But how does that improve Innovation?