Search for nation's top entrepreneurs postponed

Carol Huang

Dubai // A contest to identify the UAE's fastest-rising entrepreneurs has been postponed so that organisers can run a training programme to raise the level of competition.

Winners of the "UAE 25" were supposed to be announced in early January by AllWorld Network, a US-based group that looks for top entrepreneurs worldwide, and Potential, a business-development firm in Dubai that helped to publicise the competition in the UAE.

Instead, in February they will launch a four-month programme of online seminars and live workshops on business principles and practices. The training aims to attract more competitors and strengthen their applications.

"We wanted to make sure we had strong UAE penetration," said AllWorld Network's co-founder Deirdre Coyle junior "There's an incredible opportunity here."

About 100 UAE companies have entered the competition, which will feed into the "Arabia Fast-Growth 500", one of several AllWorld contests in Asia, Latin America and Europe.

chuang@thenational.ae