“The time is ripe for entrepreneurship in the Middle East, and I am confident that it can, indeed it must, play a crucial role in the political, social, and economic changes sweeping across the region,” AMIDEAST President and CEO Theodore Kattouf told participants in the William Davidson Institute’s Global Summit on Educating Entrepreneurs, held June 16-17 at the University of Michigan.

Aspiring entrepreneurs at AMIDEAST/Lebanon.

As the conference’s keynote speaker, Kattouf underscored the potential role of entrepreneurship in addressing the challenges facing the region at this historic juncture. “People came into the streets in Tunisia and Egypt for many reasons, but certainly the lack of employment opportunities and the absence of social justice were prominent among them. Youth unemployment rates are intolerably high in many MENA countries; in Egypt, Tunisia, and some other states they are particularly high among public university graduates.”

He noted that most of the 90 million new jobs that the region will need to generate over the next 10 years will have to come from small and medium-size businesses. But the success of these ventures will require the region to create an environment more conducive to entrepreneurial activity. Kattouf noted that, despite the successes of entrepreneurial activity in countries like Lebanon and Dubai and of emigrants who have gone on to success in other countries, would-be entrepreneurs in most countries face obstacles including corruption and cronyism, bureaucratic regulation, rule-of-law issues, limited venture capital, and rigid political structures that discourage risk taking.

Kattouf offered that “the uprisings that have energized the region’s youth may lead to changes that will be favorable to entrepreneurial success” and that AMIDEAST is working to increase its capacity to provide entrepreneurship training in order to support this objective. He noted, in particular, that a new partnership with the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute in several countries in the region has highlighted the demand and enthusiasm for this type of skills training, as well as the benefits to individuals.

The two-day conference brought together more than 100 participants from 20 countries for a discussion of a range of topics, including the challenges facing entrepreneurs in the Middle East, entrepreneurship education for women in developing countries, and new teaching methods and entrepreneurship curriculum developments. Participants included representatives of U.S. governmental and international development agencies, international nonprofit organizations, and micro-lending institutions, as well as educators in the field of entrepreneurship.