Microsoft helps small and medium enterprises in Lebanon through technical assistance

Al Akhbar newspaper published an interview with the Microsoft regional director, Sayyed Hashish, in which he presented an overview of the company’s investment vision for Lebanon which focuses on small and medium enterprises as well as on universities and youth.  Hashish added that Microsoft collaborates with some 15000 small and medium enterprises in Lebanon through providing them with strategic tools to develop their businesses.  He also added that around 200,000 students benefited from the Office 365 programme which is distributed free of charge.  In addition, Microsoft partners in Lebanon have trained more than 5000 teachers.

Hashish noted that small and medium enterprises are a key pillar of the Lebanese economy as they create employment opportunity for the youth and contribute to economic growth.  As such, Microsoft helped more than 50 Lebanese companies in developing their technical capacities through its BizSpark programme which especially targets small and emerging businesses.  This programme provided beneficiary companies with new Microsoft software and platforms for free in addition to receiving technical support from Microsoft and were able to contact investors, business incubators and emerging companies worldwide and receive technical training and resources and other tools for business development.

The second project which is of key importance to Hashish is the Microsoft IT academy which provides education solutions to 20 universities in Lebanon, in addition to providing IT training for student and merges class lectures with e-learning in order to develop scientific skills in what concerns the preparation and maintenance of IT infrastructure.  Teachers are thus able to prepare their students to enter the job market armed with IT skills required by employers.

Source: Al-Akhbar 7 May 2014