Under the patronage of H.E. Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, Engineer Ahmed bin Sulaiman Al-Rajhi, the "Entrepreneurship and Modern Work Patterns" Forum was organized by the Social Development Bank, under the theme "Launch Towards the Future", on 22 and 23 January. The Forum was attended by a number of dignitaries and prominent government officials, experts, academics, consultants and entrepreneurs, as well as a number of entities, establishments and companies from various government, private and non-profit sectors.

In his inaugural address to the Forum, H. E. the Minister praised the support and keenness of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister - May Allah protect them - in the entrepreneurship sector under the National Transformation Program, and for the enhancement of the capabilities and potentials of Saudi youth, through the initiation of self-employment to manage their qualitative projects, and then transform to start their own establishments and companies, while contributing to the creation of more jobs in multiple economic activities.

His Excellency explained that in 2023, the Social Development Bank injected more than SR 11 billion into the national economy to advance the ambitions of the Saudi youth and encourage them to self-employment. More than 155,000 citizens benefited from these funds. Furthermore, the number of small and medium enterprises doubled from 429,000 in 2016 to more than 1.2 million at present. He indicated that this confirms the support and enablement of the Wise Leadership provides for entrepreneurs, as well as the enhancement the role of small and medium enterprises and self-employment in supporting economic resources, and contributing to the growth of GDP, to achieve the goals of the kingdom's Vision 2030.

For his part, Mr. Ibrahim bin Hamad Al Rashid, CEO of the Social Development Bank, reiterated that this forum represents a step towards enriching local content and national expertise and learning more lessons and experiences. It also unveils new horizons for leading products through exporting to regional and international markets. He explained that the forum contributes to embracing promising industries, such as e-sports and financial technology facilities, to help them grow. We have held a number of important agreements to promote export and support promising industries, pointing out that we are proud of this great turnout and the tremendous success of the forum, which exceeded the number of participants all expectations.
 
The forum witnessed the launch of the first edition of the Social Development Bank Award. 20 winning business brokers and microenterprises, in recognition of their outstanding efforts and contributions. The award was aimed to encourage the achievements of the sectors supporting the groups targeted by the bank, and honor entrepreneurs and inspiring initiatives in the Kingdom.

On the other hand, the first discussion panel of the forum on "the future of entrepreneurship in the region and its supporting development systems", began with the participation of H. E. Mr. Mohammed bin Mazyad Al-Tuwaijri, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Development Fund, and H.E. Eng. Saleh bin Nasser Al-Jasser, Minister of Transport and Logistic Services.

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