Minister of Commerce and Industry Tawfiq Al-Rabiah has proposed to establish an enterprise credit fund to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Kingdom.

The initiative was disclosed at the 4th Youth Businessmen Forum organized by the youth businessmen committee at Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the support of Riyadh Gov. Prince Faisal bin Bandar on Sunday night.

The minister did not give any details of the fund, but said that it will be an addition to the existing funds to support SMEs that are mostly created by youth entrepreneurs with a view to protecting them financially so that they flourish and give yields to the country.

Al-Rabiah said his ministry will take the initiative to create a national number, like the one for individuals, for each business in the Kingdom to be used as a unified reference for all transactions related to business at all government departments in a way to facilitate and control businesses.

The forum, themed "entrepreneurship and innovative thinking" and composed of a number of successive sessions, was an event with initiatives from participants that support youth businesses and projects.

The opening was by the Riyadh governor, which was followed by a session on entrepreneurship ideas. The session was a contest in which around 50 business project ideas were presented either by individuals or groups, both male and female youth, for judgment by a panel and voting by audience.

Three ideas in the contest won prizes totaling SR2.2 million.

A third session was a panel discussion by a number of ministers and top financial government officials.

Prince Faisal lauded the role of RCCI, in particular the YBC for organizing the important event for the youth of the Kingdom.

"Youth should stick to faith, Islamic creed, learning, getting experience, patience, and innovation to succeed. But don’t rush for success as it will come with hard work and patience as building up is always step by step. The government will help you with support," the prince said.

The Chief of YBC and RCCI board member, Ali Al-Otheim thanked the governor for supporting the event that marked a decade of its march, saying that the YBC was established to help empower youth in business and release their innovative powers to create a generation that can proudly contribute to the building of the country fruitfully.

Al-Otheim announced the launch of a number of electronic and mobile initiatives that respond to youth fondness with e-things. These initiatives include a portal to be named Manarat Ruwad Al-Aamal (light stand of business entrepreneurs), which aims at enriching the Arabic e-content for youth on entrepreneurship and SMEs.

They include a portal to be named Build in Kingdom, which aims to act as bank data for youth on all emerging and entrepreneurial businesses in the Kingdom for benefiting from their expertise and resources.

They also include a mobile application to be named Aamurni (I am at your disposal) that aims to enable uploading the innovative entrepreneurial ideas presented by youth for contests to the app, so they can be traced electronically until the announcement of the final result. The app enables users to contact the participants for sharing their ideas.

Prince Turki bin Saud Al-Saud, president of King Abdulaziz for Science and Technology, promised to work for shortening the period of giving patents for youth business innovative ideas and inventions, so they can market their works and approach investors.

The general manager of the Saudi Bank for Credit and Savings, Ibrahim Al-Honaishel announced that the youth businessmen and serious entrepreneurs can benefit financially from the SR2 billion capital lending program recently signed with Islamic Development Bank by getting finances for their projects costing up to SR20 million.