Under the Patronage of
Her Excellency Mrs. Majd Shweikeh, Minister of Information and
Communication Technology and Minister of Public Sector
Development, the “BIG by Orange” summit took place on the 10th of
January at the King Hussein Business Park. The summit, organized and
hosted by Orange Jordan brought together close to 200 high-level
entrepreneurs from the Kingdom, global representatives from the
Orange FAB network and investors from different related sectors.
During the opening
speech, CEO of Orange Jordan, Jérôme Hénique said that Jordan was
selected for the summit for the first time due to its position as a
leading country in the field of entrepreneurship, indicating that
holding this summit stems from the company’s belief in the value of
entrepreneurship and its key role in supporting the economy through
job creation and its contribution to socio-economic development.
He
added that Orange Jordan's organization of this important event comes
as part of its commitment to supporting local and international
entrepreneurs and giving innovative startups the opportunity to
connect with local and global investors. Entrepreneurs were also
given the opportunity to provide detailed presentations of their
projects and discuss them interactively with investors, helping
bridge the divide between the needs and expectations of startups and
corporations, thus boosting the entrepreneurial sector in Jordan.
Hénique also talked
about Orange Jordan’s Business Innovation Growth (BIG) program
saying: “We are very proud of the caliber of our startups who join
BIG, as they all grow to become success stories and were all able to
benefit from the program, leading them to leverage their businesses
and offer the market new services.”
During
the summit, various stakeholders presented the entrepreneurial
ecosystem in Jordan giving detailed explanations, in terms of
mapping, statistics, main players and challenges, proposing
cooperation strategies for both startups and entrepreneurs. Local
and international startups also shared their success stories and
explored possible investment opportunities through Orange Group’s
investment arm “Orange Digital Venture” (OVD) and others.
Participants
felt that the summit organized by Orange Jordan was a real
opportunity for entrepreneurs to network, allowing them to meet a
number of potential investors, helping in facilitating investment
decisions made by companies to adopt the innovative projects, all in
all positively reflecting on the local ICT sector and the overall
economy.
During
the summit’s workshops, success stories were shared, challenges and
obstacles faced by startups on a local and international level were
discussed in addition to exchanging ideas and solutions. The
participants stressed on the importance of investment entities that
would adopt the pioneering ideas of startups in order to pave the way
for them to launch their business.
Orange Jordan, driven by
its five-year corporate strategy Essentials 2020 and inspired by its
refreshed Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate
Entrepreneurship Responsibility plan, recognizes its crucial role as
a conscious corporate citizen in the community and the inseparability
of itself from the Jordanian people. As such, the telecommunications
company remains committed to upholding social progress in a variety
of ways, focusing especially on the support of the youth and
entrepreneurship. Launched at the end of 2015, BIG by Orange Jordan
has already assisted many young entrepreneurs to grow their ideas
into actions, providing business advice and meticulous technical
support to a number of grassroots startups with promising futures.
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