Arab Finance: Minister of Planning and Economic Development Ahmed Rostom outlined plans to develop a joint investment fund to support companies at different stages of their growth, according to a statement.
The ministry will establish the fund in cooperation with the National Investment Bank (NIB), operating through its subsidiary NI Capital, and various development partners.
The initiative is part of the government’s Executive Plan to Support Entrepreneurship and Startups, which aims to standardize the definitions of startups and entrepreneurial businesses and facilitate their access to incentives.
The plan targets 5,000 startups and attracts $5 billion in venture capital, launching a unified financing initiative to mobilize $1 billion over the next five years.
Rostom highlighted the growing economic significance of entrepreneurship, citing 2024 estimates from Startup Genome indicating that the global startup ecosystem is valued at the equivalent of nearly 8% of the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of G20 countries.
