World Bank honors 13 Saudi trainers under KACST incubators program

KACST spokesman said that under the program the winners of the award will be accredited trainers to teach those interested to learn about the incubators program in the Kingdom.
Valerie D'Costa, infoDev's program manager of the World Bank presented the accreditation certificates at a simple ceremony held recently at the headquarters of KACST in Riyadh.
Nawaf bin Sahaf, executive director of BADIR program, which manages the incubators program at KACST, congratulated the trainers on receiving the official accreditation from a world-renowned body.
KACST's BADIR initiative is evolving into a comprehensive national program that actively advances, promotes and supports technology innovation, incubation and entrepreneurship throughout the Kingdom.
SBIN program was introduced in the Kingdom in a joint cooperation between KACST and World Bank to develop and localize technology in the Kingdom, and support emerging technical projects.
Al-Sahaf said that SBIN organizes a number of workshops and specialized training programs to raise the efficiency of officials and workers in the field of incubators in the Kingdom.
He added that KACST would sign another agreement with the World Bank early next year.
SBIN was set up in 2009 on an initiative made by KACST to consolidate concerted efforts of all sectors involved in the incubators and entrepreneurship program in the Kingdom.
Since its inception, it has been organizing regular meetings and training sessions to raise awareness in the community about the importance and benefits of incubators.
Business Incubators have been in existence since 1957. Today there are between 2,000 to 3,000 incubators worldwide.
Many countries have developed incubator associations after witnessing the advantage of sharing knowledge, skills and experiences. There are almost 20 such associations globally with similar aims.
Some of the Kingdom's public institutions have launched incubation programs.
Spearheading technology incubation with a vision to lever international experience, KACST has been a leader in institutionalizing and developing a quality technology business incubation program in Saudi Arabia.
At its first Technology Incubation Conference in 2009, KACST announced a consultation process to develop a national policy for "Technology Business Incubation in the Kingdom." Now, the policy provides a strategic road map to develop the necessary people, processes and infrastructure.
It focuses on ensuring a quality and world best practice incubator industry through certification, monitoring, performance improvement and capacity building.

Source: ARAB NEWS