Tag Archives: Beirut

Q&A with Yasser Akkaoui

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Q&A with Yasser Akkaoui

Yasser Akkaoui,
Editor in Chief of Executive magazine & Founder of KConcept Holding
Beirut, Lebanon

 Yasser Akkaoui is the founder of KConcept Holding, the mother company of Capital Concept, Prime Job, News Media and the Center for Strategic Studies. Yasser has become one of the reference names in Corporate Governance activism in the Middle East. He has been a committee member of Human Rights Watch in the Middle East since 2010, a member of the Organization of Economic Development and Cooperation’s taskforce for MENA stock exchanges, and the regional consultant for the Center for International Private Enterprise. In April 2010, he was invited to Washington by US president Barack Obama, along with delegates from around the world invested in advancing entrepreneurship, to discuss the state of entrepreneurship in the MENA. Since 2011, he has been the chairman of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies. From 2008 to 2012, he has been a board member of the Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA), Transparency International’s Lebanese chapter and through LTA, he has co-founded the Institute of Directors in 2010 which aims at promoting good governance in Lebanon. Yasser also created PrimeJob, a headhunting agency working alongside some of the biggest companies throughout the Middle East. He is the founder of the Center for Strategic Studies, a non-profit organization engaged in awareness creation for employment concerns and resource development strategies for the 21st century. Yasser has been representing the interests of Executive Magazine since 2001, a media platform he uses to advocate reforms in the Middle East. Executive, established in 1999, is dedicated to providing its readers with in-depth and forward thinking analysis, solid reporting and punchy opinion on Middle Eastern business, economy and public policy. Yasser is the Vice Chairman of Young Arab Leader, and is also a Business Ethics instructor at the American University of Beirut. Since its inception in 2010, he has been a strategic partner for the Beirut Art Fair.

 What kind of policies or regulatory frameworks Lebanon needs to work on in order to facilitate investments? Is there anything that’s currently being done in this regard?

In the absence of a modern private equity legal structure and a functional Beirut Stock Exchange, and without deeply rooted corporate governance principles, investors will shy away from our entrepreneurs. We are confident that the Capital Markets Authority is aware of its mandate – let’s hope they will be up to the task.

 Is there something unique about Lebanese ecosystem? What is it and how can the country use it to up its startup game and compete with other ecosystems?

Educated and creative entrepreneurs together with skilled and hardworking craftsmen is our competitive advantage. When provided with the right framework that allows them to discover each other and cooperate towards achieving their ambitions all while satisfying investor’s expectations is the only strategy that will – without comparing to other ecosystems – serve the nation building exercise.

 

 

Q&A with Marianne Hoayek

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Q&A with Marianna Howayek

Marianne Hoayek
Director of the Executive Office, Banque du Liban
Beirut, Lebanon

Marianne Hoayek has a degree in Business Economics from the Lebanese American University, a degree in Law from the Lebanese University and obtained her Masters in Laws of Banks and Capital Markets from the Saint Joseph University. She is currently the Executive Director heading the Executive Office at Banque du Liban since its establishment in July 2007. The office directly reports to the Governor of the Central Bank.
 Marianne is member of the official Lebanese delegation to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Annual Meetings and member of several committees such as the Investment Committee and the Open Market Committee.

What has been the feedback/reactions to the Circular 331?

Since we issued circular 331 in August last year, we have had very positive feedback from all participants in the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem.

For the first time in Lebanon and I think in the Arab World, an innovative approach has been used by a Central Bank to create a platform dedicated to providing equity finance for Entrepreneurs through commercial banks.

Lebanese banks can invest in the capital of startups, incubators, accelerators, and funds. The Central Bank will guarantee 75% of that investment up to 3% of each banks’ capital.

This scheme made available around $400 million USD. Some were saying that the Circular will pave the way for Lebanon to become the Silicon Valley of the Middle East. We are keeping our hopes high… In all cases, once fully utilized we believe that this scheme will contribute to economic growth by 1%.

How is the selection process like? What are you looking for?

Well in terms of what we are looking for, as I said earlier, we are looking for investments in companies that will help foster the knowledge economy. The world we live in is directed by technology, and Lebanon has a big potential in this sector. We believe that the digital sector is a very promising one along with other sectors that are based on innovative and creative ideas. Supporting sectors where Lebanon has a comparative advantage could help increase competitiveness and create new job opportunities in particular to the talented youth.

The text of the circular specifies the conditions and the selection process; most importantly, the company should be a Lebanese joint-stock company with nominal shares, not a financial or an offshore company. Its work should rely on knowledge economy and aims at supporting creative intellectual skills. It has to have a positive impact on the economic and social growth in general and on job creation.

To date, we have had quite a number of companies that benefited from the circular. Presella through Al Mawarid Bank, was the first pilot project (June 2014). Since then we have approved the disbursements of funds for several venture capital and we have some other applications in the pipeline.

What are the next steps with the Circular?

In Lebanon in the past few years, we have been facing challenging circumstances that are putting a heavy toll on the economy’s ability to grow. The need to help the economy to face those challenges was one of the main reasons behind issuing the Circular 331. We will continue our efforts to help stimulate economic growth that can be translated into increased job opportunities and a better socio-economic position.

As for what’s next, we have been keen from the beginning to engage all stakeholders in a constructive dialogue regarding what we can do to help the economy. Last year in December we introduced the new platform to the banking sector and entrepreneurs alike in an event that we called: INNOVATE – Banking Outside the Box, and this year we believe that BDL Accelerate will help us shape the next steps needed based on the presentations of the prominent speakers regarding their experiences and best international practices. I believe that the discussions and interactions that will take place will be very useful to assess what more can be done… I am looking forward to learn from those interactions… 

What does Lebanon have to do to up its startup game?

I think we need to work on improving the business environment in general. In the World Bank’s latest report Doing Business 2015, which measures ease of doing business in 189 economies, Lebanon unfortunately slipped from the rank 102 in 2014 to 104 in 2015, a sign that we did not make any serious effort to cut red tape or introduce new regulations to improve the business climate. In the ‘starting a business’ category, Lebanon ranked 119 out of the 189 countries. If we would like to encourage entrepreneurs to start a business we need to make it as simple as possible and to decrease administrative costs. We also need to invest more in upgrading our educational systems and include entrepreneurial learning as part of school curriculum.

As for what concerns the Central Bank, we need to continue the work on improving access to finance for startups. Some work still has to be done on not only decreasing cost of capital for SMEs—this we have been doing for some time, and will keep on doing it for next year through our stimulation package—but we also need to make it more competitive and less burdensome.

We need to encourage banks to innovate in the tools they make available to SMEs in general and entrepreneurs in particular. We also need to work on encouraging the creation of incubators and accelerators in Beirut and outside the capital to be able to reach the largest number of entrepreneurs.

 

Seedstars World Coming to Lebanon For The First Time

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Seedstars

Seedstars World is an exclusive worldwide startup competition traveling to over 30 cities in 2014 and taking place in Beirut on November 20-21.

The competition aims at finding the best young entrepreneurs in emerging and fast-growing startup scenes such as Lebanon.  The pitching event is exclusively sponsored by Banque du Liban and hosted by Lebanon’s first international startup conference, Banque du Liban Accelerate 2014. The bank has been supporting startups in Lebanon for the past couple of years, providing them with a boost and turning Beirut into a strategic hub for them.

Up to 50 startups will be selected to participate in the competition. Each one will have an exhibition stand at the conference, and will conduct a 1 Minute Lightning Round Pitch on the main stage on November 20.  The top 10 startups will then enter the Finalists Round on November 21, from which the winner will be selected.

The winning startup will be crowned “Seedstars Beirut Regional Winner“ and flown to Geneva, Switzerland for a 3-day boot camp and the Seedstars Final Event. They will represent Lebanon and compete for the prestigious title of “Seedstars World Best Startup”, which will grant them a $500,000 investment as well as the opportunity to pitch in front of a wide panel of European investors. Last year’s winner was able to raise $6M thanks to this final pitch.The winner will also receive $20,000 worth of hosting services from Softlayer and $60,000 worth of prizes from our global partners. The 2nd and 3rd runners-up will get $50,000 worth of prizes.

The 50 competing startups will receive regional media coverage and have the opportunity to meet with potential partners and peers. The startups can come from any field but have to be for-profit and prepared to pitch in public, in English.  The company must have been founded less than 2 years prior to the competition, and have a maximum funding of $500,000.  If your startup fits the criteria, you have until November 14th to apply; Seedstars World will inform you if you have been selected 5 days before the event.

Seedstars World is after the next big thing and is willing to push it as far as it can through training and pitching opportunities. This is a rare opening that can change the future of your startup.

Apply here