Silatech and the Applied Innovation Institute, in partnership with Ooredoo, have launched the first Arab Mobile App Challenge.

Teams of up to six members, under 30 years of age, will work to develop applications (apps) for mobile phones that address needs in the education, health, entertainment or employability/entrepreneurship sectors. The winning teams will receive prizes of up to $50,000, said a statement.

The main objectives of the competition are to introduce young Arabs to the concept of entrepreneurship and the path to business start-up, as well as opportunities for enhancing employability skills particularly relevant to the tech space.

Teams will go through an acceleration process, opportunities for multiple workshops, and also be assisted by an experienced mentor who will provide coaching and advice in how to turn good ideas into viable businesses, it said.

Starting as a pilot challenge this year in Tunisia, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the intent is to roll the contest out to the entire region in the future, it added.

Each participating country will host a local “Mobile App Challenge,” with three finalist teams from each country participating in the regional finals, to be hosted in Qatar in February 2014. One team from each of the five countries will then be selected in Qatar, allowing five regional teams to compete against other international teams at the annual international Mobile World Congress finals held in Barcelona from February 24-27.

Silatech CEO Dr Tarik Yousef said: “Technology and entrepreneurship are tools which offer enormous potential to empower young people with greater control over their lives and their well-being. The Arab Mobile App Challenge provides an exciting platform that combines these concepts in a fun way, and we look forward to seeing the innovative ideas that emerge from it.”

Applied Innovation Institute board member Dr Paris de l’Etraz said: “Apps are growing much faster than the Internet ever did, and we need to make sure that the Arab world is ready to take up this challenge, which is bound to change the way we interact with our world in the future. We need more Arabic content and that is a major goal of this challenge.” – TradeArabia News Service