MENACatalyst Organizes Meet and Greet with Palestinian Startups and Prime Minister

Ramallah, Palestine, Feb. 25, 2020 – MENACatalyst held its first Meet and Greet with Palestinian Prime Minister H.E Mohammad Shtayyeh, to discuss the country’s growing startup ecosystem and the role of entrepreneurship in tackling youth unemployment. 

 Along with MC, some of the county’s most promising startups met at the Prime Minister’s office in Ramallah to examine the state of Palestinian entrepreneurship. Discussions explored how marketplace barriers, limited access to resources, and investment opportunities have come to define Palestine’s entrepreneurial landscape, forcing many startups to look towards regional and international opportunities to stay alive.

 40 early and growth-stage startups joined the event and came from a diverse range of backgrounds, among them tech, e-commerce, fitness, medical, and social. Some of the more well-known Palestinian startups, making waves across regional and global markets, were also in attendance, including Gamiphy, Kenz, Mashvisor, Shadanayoga, Tawazon, and Aeliasoft, to name a few. Illustrating the power of entrepreneurship, attending startups were responsible for employing nearly 400 individuals, and generating annual profits of an estimated 8.5 million USD.

 Prime Minister H.E Mohammad Shtayyeh then spoke at length about the role of the public sector in implementing growth-oriented policies conducive to healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem development and prioritizing a culture conducive to innovation and impact. In line with the announcement of 2020 as the year for youth in Palestine, the Prime Minister gave special attention to initiatives aimed at youth development and resilience. Also in attendance was Osama Al-Saadawi, Minister of Entrepreneurship, which shows the dedication of the Prime Minister’s Office to enhance their efforts in this crucial sector.

 Opening the event was the director of MC, Ghassan Amayra, who shared the organization’s overall mission to foster youth innovation and entrepreneurship as a means to achieve a resilient Palestinian economy, one that can overcome borders to seize new global opportunities. Amayra further explored the following topics, entrepreneurship success, challenges, and future interventions, as they pertain to the realities faced by the country’s emerging entrepreneurs and strategies to overcome them. Ultimately, Amarya stressed the importance of collaborating and partnering with Palestinians from the diaspora, in order to access game-changing opportunities and compete in international markets.

 After introductory statements were made, attending startups took the opportunity to bring to the Prime Minister’s attention some of the most pressing issues affecting the viability of their enterprises and the necessity for strengthening public sector interventions that not only incentivizes entrepreneurs to start up in Palestine, but that paves the way for strategic cross-sector collaborations.

 The meeting ended on a positive note, one that acknowledged the realities of Palestine’s nascent but developing ecosystem, and the commitment of stakeholders to work towards increased dialogue, and the implementation of strategies that result in viable startups that have global potential.