Committee formed to study investment in Saudi inventions

Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, has instructed to form a committee to study the volume of the private sector in the Kingdom and its ability to support Saudi inventions and innovations. The committee was proposed earlier by Minister of Education Prince Faisal bin Abdullah.
The directives included the involvement of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry in the study, prior to submitting all of the details later to the crown prince after the study is complete. The Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) has immediately begun sending formal requests to Chambers around the Kingdom, to survey the inventions and innovations carried out by Saudis in order to put them in the lists for submission to the competent committee, which will in turn submit it within an integrated study to Crown Prince.
The study includes private sector’s ability to develop necessary programs for promoting and developing investment in new industrial projects for them (the new industries) to be a genuine addition to existing ones.
The study also approaches the private sector’s ability to improve its performance as to fully play its investment role and ability in terms of economic improvement through follow up, collaboration and development.
Saudi inventions that obtained the patents in the last few years are many, but they failed to obtain the financial support that enables them to gain profits.
Jeddah based inventor Yasser Bahjat felt that the creation of the new committee is a good move that would bring inventors closer to their dream of realizing their inventions. He hoped that its establishment would be followed up. Bahjat suggested that a public funding of some of the inventor’s ideas would encourage businessmen in the private sector to do the same.
“There is a lack in risk-taking investors in the private sector. Most, if not all of small tech companies in the US for example started as an idea and backed by venture capitalist or investors willing to take the risk in these ideas, which at the end benefits both sides,” said Bahjat.
Rayan Nasser Masudi of Jeddah-based startup company Ray Technology, another Saudi inventor, told Arab News he hoped for the new committee would benefit both investors and inventors not only the first given the fact “the majority of inventors actually lack the business and marketing expertise the majority of business investors have.
Saudi inventors hoped this committee will would their efforts in seeing their inventions sees the light.