MGLE01: GOL AND YOUNG BUSINESS LEADERS LAUNCH

UNCLAS BEIRUT 000455 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE PASS USTR, NSC FOR ABRAMS/DORAN/WERNER/SINGH E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON EINV EFIN LE SUBJECT: MGLE01: GOL AND YOUNG BUSINESS LEADERS LAUNCH ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAM ¶1. On February 10, Econoff attended a working dinner at the Grand Serail for the launching of "Bader" (literally the beginning of the day in Arabic, refers to a "start-up" company),a partnership between the private sector and the GOL to encourage entrepreneurship. In attendance were about fifty businessmen, including several successful young Lebanese entrepreneurs, PM Siniora, Finance Minister Azour, and Minister of Economy and Trade Haddad. They listened to a series of presentations focused on creating a "culture of entrepreneurship" among Lebanese students and recent graduates. ¶2. Bader's objective, according to founding members, is to create jobs and opportunities for the young generation of Lebanese through a renewed entrepreneurial spirit. The group has noticed that many recent Lebanese graduates who would normally be qualified entrepreneurial candidates choose to work abroad, and qualified graduates who stay in Lebanon choose to work in large corporations, consulting firms, or banks. Key issues raised in Bader's preliminary action plan include: raising awareness of entrepreneurship by having a road show of high profile executives at leading universities and launching a media campaign to show the incentives and tools available in Lebanon to start a new business, creating an entrepreneurship center at a local university, supporting a USD 50,000 business plan competition modeled on a similar competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Entrepreneurship Center, and creating a new Venture Capital fund. ¶3. Founding members were tasked with the job of creating a vision and action plan, promoting entrepreneurship through a TV and press campaign, eventually serving on a jury for the business plan competition, and raising funds for the Venture Capital fund and media campaign. The Venture Capital fund would be managed by Kafalat, a Lebanese financial company owned partially by banks and the Lebanese equivalent of the FDIC that provides financing for small and medium sized enterprises. The group had already received pledges of more than USD 200,000 towards "Bader" from the businessmen present in the room. FELTMAN