Badir Programme Pumped $560 Million in Saudi Economy Since 2010

Saudi Arabian Badir Programme for Technology Incubators and Accelerators, one of the leading initiatives of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, has contributed an estimated SAR 2.1 billion ($560 million) to Saudi Arabia's economy on a cumulative basis from 2010 to the end of last year, based on the total revenues of SAR 620 million achieved by the incubated and graduated technical companies in the programme.

"The country attaches a special priority to the entrepreneurship sector, which is one of the key pillars of the diversification of national income sources, sustainable national economic growth, job creation, as well as strengthening the Kingdom's capabilities for moving toward a post-oil economy,” says the programme's CEO Nawaf Al Sahhaf.

Earlier this month, the Badir Programme officially received the presidency of the Arab Technology Incubators and Techno Parks Network (ARTECNET), for a period of three years from 2019 to 2021. ARTECNET aims to exchange the ideas and visions on the most successful ways to promote the Arab incubators industry, to benefit from expertise, information and experience in improving the performance of these incubators, and to develop ambitious plans and programs to improve the performance and enhance the role of emerging companies in the Arab world.

Al Sahhaf adds that the data gathered in CREEDA Projects' report provides many important indicators on the effectiveness of the steps taken by the Saudi government to support and develop the entrepreneurship sector and enhance its competitiveness globally, as well as increase its contribution to the GDP in line with the National Transformation Programme and Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030.

The results of the "Economic Impact Assessment Report" conducted by the Australian company CREEDA Projects, which specialises in the establishment and management of technical incubators globally, showed that the contribution from the Badir Programme to the Saudi economy was about SAR 664 million during the past three years, an increase of 56 percent, compared to the "Economic Impact Assessment Report" conducted in 2015.

The Economic Impact Assessment Report for the period from 2015 to the end of last year includes a summary of the economic indicators of the Emerging Technology Companies Sector in Saudi Arabia in terms of the development of the sector's contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) and its direct impact on economic growth and share of the labour market and total investments. The report also includes projections of the rates of development and growth in these indicators in the coming years.

In its report, CREEDA adopted two specific methodologies for the assessment of the economic impact of the Badir Program and its contribution to the Saudi economy. The first methodology took into account the contribution to the GDP on the basis of the total expenditures of the incubated and graduated technical companies; the second one measures the contribution of these companies to the GDP on the basis of their annual revenues.

Over the past three years, Badir Programme grew significantly in terms of the number of jobs generated by the incubated and graduated companies and their economic impact, expecting an increase in the contribution of these companies to the GDP in the coming years as a result of the structural and operational improvements implemented by the programme the past two years.

Main Image: Nawaf Al Sahhaf, CEO of Badir Programme for Technology Incubators and Accelerators. Courtesy of Badir Programme.