The Islamic world held a prominent position on the global stage in early centuries and Muslims were at the forefront of discoveries, inventions and governance.
The social sectors of Muslim societies also played a self-sustaining and impressive role.
Also, entrepreneurial culture was a key factor in the rise and fall of many economies in the past 100 years.
A close analysis of any leading economy in the world would show us the great contribution of their pioneers, inventors, innovators and great business leaders, who not only commercialized different ideas but, in that process, created massive wealth, employment opportunities and led their countries into industrial and, later, knowledge revolution.
There is a need to provide a solution to the dreams and inspirations of the youth in the Islamic world, who are struggling to cope with the economy as they strive to use their skills to design their destiny as best as they can.
Unfortunately, the Islamic world has not taken off to be a true entrepreneurial society due to various reasons such as lack of creative thinking in the education system, social fabric, easy access to wealth and natural resources and many more.
The Muslim world has a lot of liquidity that now moves outside because it lacks new venture creation and a developed SME sector that is the backbone of any economy.
Wealth creation, mostly in the last 100 years, came from the real estate sector and from general trading by traditional leading business houses in the region that ignored the whole process of innovation and production.
However, the growing role of the World Trade Organization is now changing the landscape.
A stronger entrepreneurial culture, while addressing the burning issue of unemployment, would also build a society that is capable to fish for itself under any situation, driven by innovation and creativity.
The success of the US economy is attributed to the entrepreneurial culture that has thrived in the country in the past 100 years in the form of American dreams, which resulted in a total of $14 trillion GDP annually. This is almost double the collective GDP of Islamic world (57 countries), which is between $7 trillion - $8 trillion annually.
Every nation is thriving hard to gain market share in global trade by producing value-added goods and services, and it is only possible through entrepreneurial culture in an economy.
The Muslim world has brilliant people and great talent but at times they are constrained by the fear of failure, which stops them from acting with an entrepreneurial mindset and take risks.
Their culture does not allow for failure and a fresh start whereas failure is considered as an experience in the US economy, driving the people to make things better next time.
To develop the required eco-system of entrepreneurship, the governments should review their legal structures and ensure that they are creating the right conducive environment.
Also, universities and colleges should ensure that they are grooming the required talents and the private sector has to come up with enough risk capital to fuel innovative ideas in those human resources.
According to the Arab Human Development report released by the UNDP, the Arab world needs to create 50 million new jobs by 2020 to sustain the economy.
This is a huge challenge which can only be possible by providing youngsters with proper educational tools that can make them competitive in a flat world and produce future leaders and champions of the region, who can take their economies to the next level and build their nations into a developed nation in the 21st century.
