Khulud Halaby: Incubators to be a Syrian strategy to meet local needs

"President Bashar Al- Assad's recent visit to London has opened the wide doors of business people for developing bilateral relations and rebuilding new ties of economic cooperation with Britain" said renowned Syrian business woman Mrs. Khulud Halaby.

Mrs. Halaby, Exclusive Agent for DHL Worldwide Express in Syria and who was a member of the business delegation accompanying the president in his recent visit to London on December 15 through 18, added that the visit was also an occasion to demonstrate Britain's preparedness to consolidate this cooperation with the Syrian aid for serving common interests and mutual benefits.

Mrs. Halaby explained that a meeting was held during the visit with the representatives of the Syrian community in London. She said that the meeting was an opportunity for the Syrian business delegation accompanying the president to become familiar with investments conditions both ways. The business delegation was composed of 26 members, including seven businesswomen. Mrs. Halaby said that the Syrian businessmen living in the UK expressed readiness to invest their potentials and enrich business experience back home in Syria.

Mrs. Halaby also cited another example of the great activities conducted by the Syrian Community in London who established a school for Syrian children. This school started with 18 students and now includes over 340 students. The school she said, teaches in addition to the British curricula, the Arabic language and this is with the aim to link the students to their motherland. Moreover, this school seems to have attained competing results with their British counterparts.

She also commented very positively on the luncheon meeting held at the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce including eminent British and Syrian businessmen.

Concentrating on the activities carried out by Syria's First Lady, Mrs. Asmaa Al- Assad, in London, Mrs. Halaby stated "Personally, I consider the most amazing part of the trip was having the honor of accompanying together with my colleague Mrs. Yasmin Azhari, Mrs. Asmaa Al-Assad on her visit to the Digital Incubator for London."

Generally speaking, a business incubator is a low cost workplace which offers to a newly starting entrepreneur an instructive and supportive environment including full access to networks and business counseling. The incubatee remains in the incubator for a period of 2 to 3 years during which he builds up his business under support and guidance. At the end of this period, he should have acquired enough independence to be able to continue on his own, outside the incubator, and to develop his business and create job opportunities for other people.

According to UK Business incubation, there are about 200 incubators in the UK, a third of which have been established in the last 12 months. The overwhelmingly majority of incubators required sponsorship or a grant subsidy in order to start ups, and 60% received public sector support at the outset.

British incubators have an 80% success rate in growing new companies. 60% of the incubated companies specialised in technology or knowledge base industry.

Incubators for digital businesses are an essential part of the new and traditional economy. In June 1999, there were 42 net incubators in the USA. By June 2000 there were 214.

Typically, an incubator for new digital businesses offers the following services free or at discounted rate in exchange for quality: Capital; Research and analysis; strategic advice; Development of business plan; serviced office or production facilities and Internet connection; training, marketing and PR; Recruitment resources strategies; financial, legal and tax planning, assistance with fund-raising and investor relationships and structuring and planning for Launch.

On to what extent the experience of the British incubator can be applied in Syria, Mrs. Halaby said. I believe this is a great business opportunity and is certainly one of the foundations for job creations together with ... and Fardoss project. These three projects are the tripod to anticipate on future job employment needs and job creation.

She explained that "She is a member of the seven Syrian businesswomen committee working under the directives of Mrs. Asmaa Al-Assad and with the support of the Syrian- European Business Center (SEBC) on a study to establish the first incubator of its kind in Syria." She commented "We should not necessarily start with a digital incubator following the British model, we rather take a subject which suits our local needs and allow the opportunity for greater number of people to join the project."

She added that the Syrian incubator project should meet an inevitable success because it will be the first example of its kind and the nucleus for many more to follow.

Mrs. Halaby quoted Mrs. Asmaa al- Assad who indicated the important role played by the Arab women throughout history and her pivotal role since the early days of Islam. She also added that Syrian women in particular enjoy full legal rights and that they are highly active as engineers, architects, lawyers, judges, doctors, business managers both in trade and industry, in addition to their role in medical and teaching fields, etc ... and these are only a few examples.