Workshops around the Sultanate are being held to introduce candidates to the Entrepreneurship Award. The competition encourages initiatives from small and medium-sized enterprises due to the significant role they play in economic development and creation of new job opportunities.

The most recent workshop had more than 85 representatives from public and private institutions in attendance to provide potential participants with an interactive platform to enhance their understanding of the Award as well as highlight the importance of the third edition’s theme, which is Success is a Shared Responsibility. 

"We hope the workshop has achieved its objectives in raising awareness about the categories in which participants can partake. We are looking forward to witness great involvement this year and are excited to see innovative ideas that serve entrepreneurs, enabling them to fulfill their national duty of diversifying the economy and achieving sustainable development," said Badriya Al Hinai, Project Manager of the Award.

The workshop features a detailed presentation on the ‘Support Organisation’ category, which includes three awards: ‘Best Finance’ that assess banking institutions that actively support SMEs, ‘Best Supporting Government Entity’ to honour government bodies that encourage entrepreneurship through various policies, procedures and initiatives and ‘Best Supporting Firms’ to highlight the role of large companies from the public and private sectors that seek to provide opportunities for growth of SMEs through their services.

The workshop also addressed the Entrepreneurship Award category, which includes awards for the Best Educational Initiative, Best Media Initiative and Best SME Development Initiative. To familiarise attendees with the Award’s criteria, they were involved in interactive activities that used the EFQM’s Excellence Model.

"Our cooperation with Omantel, for example, reflects the importance of public-private partnership in supporting entrepreneurship. This is what we wish to emphasize through this year's event. We hope to see greater efforts being made for the same,” she added.

The Entrepreneurship Award will continue to visit various governorates such as Al Dhahirah, South Batinah, Musandam, North Batinah and Al-Buraimi in the coming days. The awareness workshops are an interactive platform to engage individuals and organizations so that they gain a deeper understanding of the criteria to compete for one of its 15 awards divided into three main categories: the Entrepreneurship Award, the Entrepreneurship Award for Small and Medium Enterprises and the Entrepreneurship Award.

The awareness campaign, which will conclude on May 9t, will be followed by the registration phase for the Award, which will commence on May 14 until July 12, 2017.

Source: Timesofoman