A number of their excellencies and leaders of the Saudi universities and Entrepreneurship Centers stressed the importance of disseminating and increasing community awareness regarding the knowledge economy and entrepreneurship based on the community role of the universities and relevant agencies. 

In a similar fashion, the participants in the second session discussed the role of business incubators in harnessing research to support transformation to knowledge-based economy. The session's keynote speaker, Dr. Rodwan Al-Wadgeeri gave a presentation on the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Culture Care inside the Saudi Universities.

He added that startups need different type of administrations and conditions to succeed such as innovation, good management which will have significant role in the company’s continuity. "The company must innovate special work model  compatible with its product and to work diligently for the success of its business work which basically depends on business model as an integrated thinking process starting from research up to production, marketing, sales and development phase", he elaborated, stressing the importance of bridging the gap between researchers and market as technology must be turned into commercial work. 

Within the same vein, President of Umm Al-Qura University reiterated the importance of increasing awareness on knowledge economy and investment in the youth minds, revealing that the university worked over the past years on introducing knowledge economy to people and increasing awareness in this regard. "We are the largest oil exporters globally and we have to benefit from such wealth and prepare our youth for the future as we will be in need of their outstanding and innovative mindsets one day".

In a similar context,  the Chairman of Prince Mohamed bin Salman College Dr. Nabeel Koshak said the commercial transformation is an urgent and not optional need currently to achieve a prosperous economy. Such transformation he added, will create economic opportunities represented by the startups. " We have to work diligently to reduce the gap between education outcomes and market needs, and this is what we are currently working on at Prince Mohamed bin Salman College", he expounded.   

On his part, the Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah Dr. Abdul-Fattah Mashatt called upon the Saudi universities to revise their academic programs and curricula so as to be in line with the real labor market and be compatible with the private sector thinking.  

 He added that the Saudi universities were mistaken for having large numbers of graduates compared to the real needs of the government sector, urging them to provide the graduates with the skills and ability to run the business in the private sector.  

"The Ministry of Hajj endeavors to transform Hajj and Umrah work to an industry which to benefit the citizen and lead the Saudi economy in the future", he expounded.  

He added that Hajj and Umrah business was limited to a few number of companies, but these numbers have increased to reach 700 companies currently accommodating 25 Saudi youth each who need to be qualified to help transform this business to an industry.

Further, he said the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah has an initiative to establish an specialized commission dedicated to give specific description to the professions and works in Hajj and Umrah within the endeavors to create the future industry of this vital sector to become one of the important supporters of the new Saudi economy.  

In another workshop, Prof. Sameer Al-Bayyat shed light on the experience of Wadi Al-Dhahran started ten years ago in establishing science oasis to attract specialized companies in the field of energy and build proper infrastructure to provide help for the innovators and register patents for development. In the coming period, he added we are working to attract specialized companies in the field of primary products. 

In turn, Eng. Fuad Musa from Sabic spoke about the impact of the startups their ability to contribute to the local production urging the government universities to activate partnerships and acheive high level of cooperation in this domain.   

Moreover, Mrs. Amal Dokhan referred to a number of points such as; the importance of making research and innovations in different fields and avoid repeating same ideas in all business accelerators, contributing significantly to solving the problems facing the market and linking the universities with the market, besides creating the needed flexibility to teach the courses physically required by the market.  

Regarding business accelerators,  the ambassador of Nine Tenth Program Dr. Tagreed Al-Saraj said the universities must provide sufficient knowledge about the entrepreneurship to prepare students to be ready to start their projects after graduation and create job opportunity for themselves and their colleagues to help changing the stereotype idea which describes the entrepreneur  as a jobless person.