The Centennial Fund (TCF) plans to support nearly 10,000 projects worth SR2.5 billion that will provide some 28,000 jobs to young Saudis over a five-year period, chairman of TCF Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz said.

The projects are meant to serve young Saudis of both sexes through the establishment of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a way that will minimize unemployment and augment economic growth in cooperation with local and global partners, he was quoted by Saudi Press Agency as saying.

The TCF has received more than 120,000 applications through the entrepreneurship management system (EMS) of which 4,168 projects were approved. In 2013 alone, 211 projects were approved while another 2,238 employed more than 5,400 young men and women in more than 200 cities and villages kingdom-wide.

Reviewing the achievements made by the TCF in an eight-year period (2005-2013), the TCF chief said that the fund had realized its planned strategic goals including the signing of a series of agreements with Saudi universities, banks and the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF). All these programs are aimed to finance projects requested by young Saudis, provision of training courses and workshops and the spread of the culture of self-launched businesses, he said.

He said 21 stalled projects were corrected during 2013 as the rate of success of projects stood at 83 percent. About 64 percent of the TCF-supported projects are located outside the major cities of the Kingdom, he said.

Female entrepreneurs accounted for 21 percent of all entrepreneurs engaged in these projects, he said.

Referring to training programs, he said 35,000 trainees have so far obtained a variety of training courses in cooperation with HRDF. Of those, 6,204 trainees were trained in 2013. Meanwhile, the number of trainees who will work as young job guidance trainers reached 1,027 during the same year, he said.

The TCF-supported projects are being financed through a number of channels including Saudi Credit & Savings Bank (SCSB) with loans reaching SR300,000 per project or Waid Center (Saudi Aramco) aimed to attract young entrepreneurs with innovative projects to be funded by loans totaling SR5 million, he pointed out.