Third Muscat Youth Summit opens- With over 200 young students aged 15 – 24 from 21 countries gathering to explore vistas for knowledge sharing, the third Muscat Youth Summit (MYS) began yesterday at the Millennium Resort in Al Musannah.

The four-day residential programme is organised by the Brand Oman Management Unit (BOMU) and will concentrate on youth entrepreneurship, urban art and culture, and digital participation.
Young participants from various countries including Belarus, Turkey, Australia, Sweden, Germany, France, the United States, Great Britain, Tunisia, Singapore, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, The People’s Republic of China, Malaysia and Brazil are attending the three day brainstorming sessions followed by a one-day community service programme.
The Summit’s first six workshops focused on entrepreneurship and were delivered by senior management from The Commonwealth Secretariat; The Prince’s Youth Business International; The Young Foundation; Knowledge Horizon; Sharakah; and London-based Maslaha.
Oman Arabic Daily and its sister Oman Observer are the media sponsors of the event.
“It’s important to mention that Muscat Youth Summit receives high-level global support from government agencies, NGOs and business to create opportunities for you to connect, network, learn and grow.
Given this demographic explosion it’s critical we identify and pursue innovative approaches for increasing and improving economic opportunities for young people”, HH Sayyid Faisal Al Said, COO, BOMU and the man behind the Muscat Youth Summit noted in his inaugural speech.
The Summit’s first six workshops covered a wide variety of topics. Students were familiarised with basic business skills and business planning and the HR aspects of start-ups. Students also gained valuable insight into intellectual property patenting, designing and drafting a business plan, resource allocation as well as funding and financing, including the basics of accounting and registering a company.
“Young people often see their communities as places with little economic activity or opportunity. With this in mind, today’s workshops presented entrepreneurship as an opportunity to create positive change.
In fact, the feedback I received on the six sessions has been highly positive. I think we can confidently say today was an outstanding success and we’re deeply grateful to all the presenters that worked so hard to deliver today’s sessions,” His Highness Sayyid Faisal added.
“In my workshop,” said Andrew Fiddaman, Managing Director, Youth Business International, “we had participants consider examples of entrepreneurship in their own community, brainstormed changes that new business can bring and explored ways to use their talents for a greater social good. In partnership with Shabib al Mamari of Injaz I designed the workshop as an introduction to entrepreneurship and covered the key characteristics of an entrepreneur, the process of evaluating business opportunities, target customers and market mix, business plan basics and securing and managing funds to start a business. Our group learnt how to assess and evaluate their ideas for a new business and how to develop an idea into a written outline. It was a fantastic session with everyone thoroughly enjoying the discussions. There’s a lot of great entrepreneurial talent in Oman, we simply need to harness and guide it in the right direction.”
Sana al Busaidi participated in the workshop deliver by Stuart Thomason and Ginny Lee of the London-based Young Foundation and said: “Coming into the Muscat Youth Summit I had no idea what to expect from today’s workshop.
But to my delight, it surpassed and exceeded my expectations. Stuart and Ginny were straight to the point coupled with getting us working on how to build our business ideas. It was both inspirational and motivational. In only a few hours I felt I’d received years of business experience — summed up. It was a remarkable day.”