Dubai: Dubai's experience can serve as a model to overcome challenges to entrepreneurship and unemployment in the Arab world, according to the head of an innovation advisory body.

Sam Hamdan, Chairman of Global Leadership Team, an innovation advisory body and the architect of the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (WSIE) told Gulf News that the UAE, specifically Dubai, through innovative incubation environments can offer another model for Arab success by evolving its current entrepreneurial capacities to make it easier for aspiring entrepreneurs to advance the innovation cycle.

"Given its past success to put businesses at the centre of its global development, I forecast that Dubai's government will continue to streamline its policy and regulatory frameworks to advance the local 'innovation production' capacity. However, its sustained success will require the active participation and collaboration among the future generation of Emiratis, the local private sector, key multinationals, and educational institutions," said Hamdan.

According to Hamdan, the challenges across the Arab world are paramount-and vary among different countries, including slow business start-up cycle time, insufficient funding resources, closed access to key Arab markets, inadequate education, and low levels of collaboration among the private sector.

Demand

The World Bank states that 100 million job opportunities need to be created by 2015 across the Arab World creating a pressing demand for Arabs to innovate and collaborate across borders, explained Hamdan.

"Dubai has managed to transform itself into the 21st century's most successful innovation story," said Hamdan adding that initiatives taken by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, exemplify that a society's well-being is a direct outcome of the entrepreneurial foresight and innovative leadership.