Aligned with its aims to provide Jordan’s youth with the tools needed to excel in Jordan’s competitive corporate arena, the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE), located on the Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) campus, and the Jordan Telecom Group, officially announced the Group’s second year of exclusive support to the Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC) for the academic year of 2006 and 2007.
At a press conference held on Sunday January 21st 2007, under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya Bint El Hassan, PSUT’s Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship signed an agreement with the Jordan Telecom Group. The agreement considers the Jordan Telecom Group as the official and sole sponsor for this nation wide event. This year will mark the second in which the group will be providing the QRNEC with its full support.
It is important to note that the QRNEC was first initiated by HRH Princess Sumaya Bint El Hasan at the Jordan ICT Forum of 2004.
The competition was first named after HRH Princess Sumaya and was formerly known as the Princess Sumaya National Entrepreneurship Competition (PSNEC). The awarding ceremony of the competition’s first edition was held in the summer of 2006 under the patronage of her Majesty Queen Rania Al- Abdullah. It also marked the laying of the foundation stone of the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE), on the PSUT campus. In its second edition, the competition was officially launched under its new name, after Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah’s patronage and after the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE). The QRNEC is only one of the many programs initiated and run at the QRCE, as it forms a central part of the center’s quest to foster creativity and entrepreneurial spirit among university students in Jordan.
Commenting on the QRNEC and the Jordan Telecom Group’s sponsorship, Mr. Laith Al Qassem, the first Deputy chair of the QRNEC's steering board said: "On this occasion we thank the Jordan Telecom Group for their generous sponsorship for the QRNEC, for this competition holds great significance at the QRCE. The QRNEC is the first business plan competition to be launched in Jordan. Our competition targets Jordan’s youth, as we believe it is this particular sector of the economy that holds the creativity and innovation needed to steer Jordan’s markets towards new and unprecedented heights. This competition falls directly in line with PSUT’s aims to become a center of excellence in the region. Through it and through many other initiatives to come, we hope that PSUT will be regarded as the MIT of the Middle East.“
From his end, Mr. Mickael Ghossein, the CEO of the JT Group expressed his pleasure in signing this Group support agreement, for the Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition in its second round. The JTG support comes within the frame of the Group's commitment in support of leadership and creativity. CEO Ghossein said the Group has always been committed towards Jordan and Jordanians, with active participation in the technological, social, and economic renaissance. The Group launches today a new initiative, adding it to other initiatives geared towards the whole society, geared towards supporting the Jordanian youth's spirit of innovation and creativity. The JTG sponsoring of this award launched by the Princess Sumaya University, itself a beacon of knowledge, comes to support University students by supporting their dreams and hopes to achieve a prosperous future. The University has the academic capabilities needed to raise a generation that will keep in pace with the development of technology, thus enhancing creativity, and equipping this generation with all that it needs to alleviate the whole society.
He added: "With this partnership with Princess Sumaya University, we are practically translating the vision of His Majesty King Abdullah in support of creativity and excellence in all fields."
Prior to the competition’s launch, the QRNEC’s administration launched a large scale awareness campaign on the competition, its goals, and what it entails. This awareness campaign targeted 22 universities across the kingdom, and was attended by over 950 university students.
Starting off on a positive note the QRNEC in its second edition saw a high participation rate. 92 student teams opted to take part in this event and to submit business proposals to the competition’s judging committee reflecting projects they dream to achieve.
Mr. Al Qassem added that through the establishment of the QRCE on the PSUT campus last year, the university’s administration feels that they are now one step closer to their quest for innovation, ”We hope to become experts in developing business practice capabilities and entrepreneurship thinking amongst our youth, for the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow, and with the guidance of our strong judging panel at the QRCE, and the sound thinking of our participants, I am confident that the QRNEC this year will be just as successful as it was in previous years if not more so“.
About Princess Sumaya University for Technology: Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT), established in 1991, is a specialized, nongovernmental, nonprofit, Jordanian university, owned by the leading applied research centre in Jordan, the Royal Scientific Society (RSS). PSUT’s area of specialization is IT, Communications and Electronics. As a nonprofit institution, PSUT embraces both the public and private sectors, but while akin to public universities in its mission, it is more aligned to the private sector in drive and spirit. From the day of its inauguration, PSUT has committed itself equally to both local development and modernization plans and to global development.
