TKM Director's BBIC Award Dinner Speech

Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies & Gentlemen

As the Director of The Knowledge Mine Business Incubator program I am proud to welcome you to this evening's TKM – Ernst & Young Big Business Idea Competition. Indeed, I'm delighted see so many supporters of the TKM program here tonight.

This is first year that we've organized the TKM – Ernst & Young Big Business Idea Competition and as pointed out earlier by Mr Sultan Al Habsi, PEIE's CEO, it attracted in excess of 70 business plans from across the sultanate. In simple terms, the Competition is designed to encourage creative and highly motivated people to form teams, sharpen their thoughts, and focus their energies and talents on developing business ideas with the potential for commercial impact and success. The competition will help develop entrepreneurial talent, contribute to the innovative spirit of the sultanate, and help national economic growth.

As the competition moved through its several phases, contestants continued to tighten their business plans and judges narrowed the field from the 70 plus entrants to the 4 finalists — the "Fab 4" — who will compete this evening for RO6,000 in start-up finance and 12 months rent free accommodation in TKM.

But the real prize is advice and feedback from our experienced judges and the business plan seminars delivered by Ernst & Young. Nearly half of the participating teams have taken advantage of these sessions. Education is what the competition is really about. If you have an idea for a new venture, then the TKM – Ernst & Young Big Business Idea Competition offers practical guidance and financing that helps turn dreams into reality.

Research demonstrates that Technology Parks around the world have a significant role to play in the growth of high-tech businesses and the development of the knowledge-driven economy. From a domestic perspective, Knowledge Oasis Muscat has the potential to play an important part in achieving this aim by exploiting available knowledge and technology through its close working relationship with its tenants, domestic tertiary institutes as well as with key partners in government and the private sector.

Indeed, TKM has a key part to play in turning outstanding new ideas into products, services and processes which will help us build a healthier, safer society, a cleaner environment and a dynamic knowledge economy for the 21st century. The TKM – Ernst & Young Big Business Idea Competition is an important step towards realizing this goal, helping to turn our ambitions into reality and increasing our rate of innovation.

This year's Competition attracted an unprecedented amount of support from government and the business community – in particular, I should like to thank: Ernst & Young; Ericsson; Nawras; ITA; National Bank of Oman; The Week; Infocomm; and Talal Abu Ghazaleh – without their invaluable support we wouldn't be here this evening. I should be grateful if you would join me in a round of applause for our supporters.

I look forward to your continued support to make the TKM – Ernst & Young Big Business Idea Competition an even greater success in 2007.

Thank you very much I hope you thoroughly enjoy the evening.