Initiative aims to boost creative local businesses

The Saudi National Creative Initiative (SNCI) was launched here recently to find and develop creative local businesses that can create jobs for young people and boost the country’ economy.
According to its website, the SNCI is a joint venture between the Tashkeel Creativity and Development Company in Jeddah, the University of Business and Technology, the University of Barcelona, the Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Goethe Institute and German consulate.
The SNCI program will be implemented in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar in two phases, from 2015 to 2017 and 2017 to 2019.
Members of the initiative’s advisory board in attendance included Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud, Maha Fitaihi, Shadi Khawandanah, Khaled Almaeena, Abdullah Dahlan, and representatives of government agencies and foreign cultural missions.
Sofana Dahlan, an SNCI board member and founder of Tashkeel, said: “This process will enable us to design effective development programs, based on statistics and precise data obtained from the innovators themselves.”
The aim is to support and boost the diversification of the Saudi economy, in a way that will have a positive impact on local society, she said. The initiative is based on four pillars — the Saudi creative weeks; SNCI portal, the first online directory for Saudi creatives; the SNCI report on creative industries; and the SNCI conference.
The first Saudi creative week will start in March with the Robert Bosch Foundation in Germany, which is sponsoring the furniture and home accessories design week, including a series of workshops, talks and exhibitions.