NEW DELHI: Saudi delegates took the spotlight of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance Summit in New Delhi on Friday as they presented their projects and initiatives for global expansion and new international partnerships. 

The summit on July 13-15 is held in New Delhi under this year’s Indian presidency of the G20 largest economies. 

Hosted by Young Indians, a group of young businessmen under the Confederation of Indian Industry, it has drawn hundreds of participants from the G20 member nations, aiming to promote youth entrepreneurship as a driver of economic renewal and social change. 

Saudi delegates are led by Prince Fahad bin Mansour, the chair of the board of directors of Saudi Arabia’s Entrepreneurship Vision and president of the Saudi G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance. The delegation comprises men and women leaders representing various businesses and government agencies. 

For Faheem Al-Hamid, the Saudi G20 YEA’s senior strategic and planning adviser, the Kingdom’s participation was “very successful because of the diversification of the delegation.” 

Invest Saudi, NEOM and the Saudi Ministry of Investment are present at the summit, serving also as its strategic partners. 

NEOM, the Kingdom’s flagship $500 billion futuristic smart city project, particularly attracted the attention of the event’s participants. 

“His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that NEOM is the city of dreams. He is reflecting the dream on the ground,” Al-Hamid told Arab News. “NEOM construction is in full swing.” 

He said NEOM’s presentation during the summit has resulted in multiple inquiries and requests for cooperation. 

“We are here to show how Saudi Arabia is open to the world for investments,” said Mohammed Al-Ajaji, outreach advisor at Invest Saudi, the Kingdom’s investment brand. 

“We also are here to showcase what Invest Saudi can do to help startups and entrepreneurs, to attract investors to growing and innovative sectors that will fit the profile of NEOM and other projects.” 

Abdulaziz Al-Saif, vice president of the board of Entrepreneurship Vision and founder of design and tech company Neomers, observed significant interest from the delegates of other countries in different Saudi projects. 

“They were very happy to interact and engage. They’re very much interested in learning more about Saudi and what we do. So, we’re happy to always help and answer questions and become the people that actually support them to land softly in the Kingdom,” he said. 

“We’re always looking for collaborations.” 

He was also interested in more engagement with the host, India. 

“We hope to only find more talents and more people to collaborate with so that we can bridge those opportunities between the two countries — India and the Kingdom of Saudi,” Al-Saif told Arab News.

“It’s been really interesting to engage with a lot of individuals here, to create a lot of opportunities and collaboration potential.” 

Sultan Gornas, founder and CEO of the Riyadh-based solution software company Go Lyv, was open to cooperation especially with the summit’s hosts as he explored information technology and artificial intelligence solutions with Indian colleagues. 

“We are exchanging knowledge and experience to plan the global expansion,” he said. “Our ambition is — for any startup in Saudi Arabia — to expand in India as it’s one of the largest markets.” 

Another Saudi delegate, Ahmed Mirghani from venture studio BIM Ventures, was participating in the summit to learn more about India’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. 

His company invests in startups that want to enter the Saudi market. 

“Perhaps we can find areas of collaboration to have some of the Indian startups come to Saudi Arabia or some of the Saudi startups to expand to the Indian ecosystem,” he said. “I am impressed with the Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem.”   

Over the last decade, the Indian startup ecosystem has grown rapidly and since the launch of the Startup India initiative in 2016, the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry has recognized more than 92,600 entities as startups. 

Saudi Arabia, too, is experiencing a boom in startup growth. Since the launch of Vision 2030, the Saudi government has been undertaking significant initiatives to stimulate private-sector growth and encourage new businesses.
   
“The most (common) similarity that I’ve seen with the Saudi ecosystem is passion. So, everybody is passionate, everybody is determined,” Mirghani said. 

“The most important element for any entrepreneur is to be passionate.”