Bazaar for handmade items inspires female entrepreneurs

A bazaar was held by Saudi female entrepreneurs at the Mall of Arabia to provide an opportunity for citizens to display handmade items and to identify market trends.
The bazaar, entitled, “Show Me Where the Market Is?” was organized by Arabian Centers Limited Company as part of its corporate social responsibility program to help empower Saudi entrepreneurs.
Muna AbuSulayman, the organizer of the event, told Arab News that the initiatives were taken to help lower Saudi unemployment, encourage CSR and empower and assist creativity, productivity and entrepreneurship in the Kingdom.
“Almost 30 entrepreneurs participated in a three-month period of activity. The second phase of the program will begin in June. The initiatives were not limited to monetary gain but include training for marketing, skills development and self-confidence,” said AbuSulayman.
The participants marketed different items, including food, accessories, prayer rugs, home decoration products and homemade beauty products. Some entrepreneurs even promoted websites.
The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry also announced the 2nd National Families Exhibition and Forum, with the cooperation of the Jeddah Center for Social Responsibility with the slogan “Made in Saudi Arabia” under the patronage of Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, governor of Makkah, in May 2013.
The exhibition and forum will be held with the participation of a number of officials, businessmen and professionals from the public and private sectors to discuss the strategic importance of the concept of productive families as an essential pillar of the Saudi economy.
Ahmed Al-Hamdan, the director of Jeddah Center for Social Responsibility who is also responsible for the productive families support program, said the aim of the forum is to highlight the strategic importance of the concept of productive families as an essential pillar of Saudi economy and to help them benefit from their experiences to develop a uniform national model, create more opportunities and undertake further initiatives for the future of productive families, which in turn, would contribute to the achievement of sustainable national development.
The forum will be a platform for discussing programs for leading Saudi companies to support efforts within a practical framework, developing national and institutional recommendations with a standardized methodology to support the efforts of productive families.
“We are all producers; we have to take initiatives to help our products and create a ‘made-in-Saudi Arabia’ market,” said Hamdan.
Topics to be discussed include “The role of the public sector in strategic plans to support productive families” and “The strategies of open markets and partnerships for productive families and the national economy.”
The forum wiill also discuss classification and quality control to create competitive products and goods in the local markets, management configurations for productive families in provinces and small and medium communities and supporting the private sector in incubating productive families.