THE Saudi Fast Growth 100 is a glimpse into the future of the Kingdom. These companies

are pioneers, representing

a new generation of Saudi entrepreneurs. Through their energy and innovation, they are helping to build a more competitive and more dynamic

Saudi economy.

In the first year, 95 companies qualified for the Saudi Fast Growth 100 and they qualified by having rapid growth in their annual turnover. The companies are organized into three groups. The Saudi Fast Growth 100 are five years and older. Forty-five

companies made that list. Start-Up companies are younger than five years. Twenty-seven companies made that list. And companies that don’t have the growth rates this year, but are strong contenders for the future, are called Companies to Watch and 23 companies made that list.

The companies are both small and large, ranging in size from SR1 million to almost SR2 billion. They represent a wide range of industries, with the fastest growing segment in IT and telecommunications.

The real stunning finding is that the 44 Saudi Fast Growth 100 companies have created 28,000 jobs since they were founded, of which 15,000 were created in the last five years. These 44 companies grew at an average of 40 percent year over year for five years. For the Start-Up companies, their average

growth rate from 2006 to 2007 was a stunning 198 percent.

TODAY, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), Al-Watan and Next Economics, a part of AllWorld Network, joined together to launch a national program devoted to growth and competitiveness culminating

in the Saudi Fast Growth 100 and the Saudi Porter Prize.

The mission of the Saudi Fast Growth 100 is to showcase emerging companies

in the Kingdom that are vital to the Kingdom’s future growth and economic success. The list identifies growing industries, future IPO companies and opportunities for investment. The Saudi Fast Growth 100 Porter Prize is to be awarded to a company that distinguishes

itself in strategy and innovation.

A strong entrepreneurial economy is the very essence and foundation of a strong, vibrant, diverse and knowledge-

based economy, the building blocks of any globally competitive economy. They are not only creating the innovative products and services for the 21st century, they are the job creators of the economy. These companies

unleash talent and reward innovation.

Entrepreneurship also has universal appeal. It generates wealth and pride not just for the entrepreneur, but also for investors, employees, and whole communities. Nothing is more attractive

to employees and to college graduates

than the opportunity to work for a company that is on the move, trailblazing

a path to the future.

Successful economies around the world are marked by a strong identifying

characteristic: They all have a dynamic, entrepreneurial environment. Why is this? Because nimble, entrepreneurial

companies are able to respond quickly to changing market conditions and this ability helps drive the competitiveness

not only of the company, but also of the country.

Entrepreneurship is the very soul of competitiveness. Consider this thought: Every time someone starts a business, it is an act of economic competitiveness. In other words, when someone starts a business, what he or she is really telling us is that we, the system, have missed something. We have overlooked an opportunity. That entrepreneur has found a new way to do something better,

faster, smarter, cheaper. So no matter

how humble the idea might be, the act of starting a business is, by definition,

an act of economic competitiveness.

These entrepreneurial men and women are dynamic thinkers who see opportunities where others see problems

and obstacles — or nothing at all. We call these entrepreneurs the “next economics” and we herald their achievements.

SAGIA, Al-Watan and Next Economics have created the Saudi Fast Growth 100. It is a list of the fastest-growing companies in the Kingdom. The companies

are ranked on their revenue growth using international standards.

We are also announcing the inauguration

of the Saudi Porter Prize. This award, which will be presented annually,

will recognize a Saudi company that has distinguished itself as an exceptional

leader in strategy and innovation. Saudi Arabia becomes just the second country, after Japan, to offer the Porter Prize.

Both the Saudi Porter Prize and the Saudi Fast Growth 100 will recognize and celebrate leadership and extraordinary

achievement. But they have the power to be much more than that. They have the power to be engines of growth. We know this because we have seen it before in the US, Europe and in emerging economies around the world.

What is our history? Ten years ago, we, the founders of AllWorld Network, worked with Professor Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School to bring to light the entrepreneurial potential of America’s cities. To accomplish our mission,

we created the Inner City 100, a list of high-growth companies in America’s urban areas. We partnered with Inc. Magazine, the magazine of record for entrepreneurship in the United to produce this list.

In the first year, we had to work hard to convince companies to apply for the list. We managed to convince 115 companies

to apply. And this year, just 10 years later, we were stunned to receive almost 10,000 nominations. Think of it! 10,000 nominations of companies no one really knew existed just a few years ago. The Inner City 100 has become an American phenomenon.

The criteria for making the Inner City 100 list are strenuous and getting more challenging each year. We look for companies

that have been able to grow at least 50 percent a year for five consecutive

years. Imagine growing at 50 percent

for two consecutive years. Now imagine keeping up that pace for five years and more and you begin to see the extraordinary achievement involved in making the list. The 2008 US winners collectively employed 15,000 people, and if they continue growing at the same rate, they will create 10,000 additional

jobs by 2010.

What gives such a list so much importance and makes it such a force for competitiveness? The list starts out by identifying and shining a spotlight on high performance companies. A virtuous

cycle then begins to occur where their stunning growth and innovation draws attention from the media and venture capitalists, thereby creating a hothouse effect for these companies. As this effect grows, the list becomes its own engine of growth.

In the process of analyzing hundreds of unheralded business achievers over the past 10 years, the Inner City 100 has also uncovered insights that have given birth to a growing number of innovative

ideas; successful public policy programs

have been created to support entrepreneurs and expand job creation, and new ways have been developed to bring investors and urban entrepreneurs

together for mutual benefit. So successful were the efforts that we also created a program for entrepreneurs 21 years old or younger called Growing Up CEO.

A few years after we started the Inner City 100 in America, we were asked by then-Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown to replicate our model in the UK, and we then launched the UK Inner City 100 list. Using the list as a critical building block, Gordon Brown and then-Prime Minister Tony Blair led a national effort to spark entrepreneurship

in the UK, promoting what they called a culture of “Enterprise for All.” To create the UK Inner City 100, we partnered

with another leading media outlet,

The Financial Times.

How does a list spur growth and competitiveness? Let us consider one of the earliest companies that made the US Inner City 100 list and then went on to make the list many more years in a row. Belkin Components makes computer

accessory components such as cables. Walk into any Jarir Bookstore and you will find many of their products.

Check your desk and you are sure to find a Belkin product. When we first met Belkin Components, the company had annual revenues of $150 million. Now, in a single decade, Belkin Components has become a billion-dollar

global company.

In the current sobering climate of speculative stock or real estate investments,

the Saudi Fast Growth 100 companies

are real companies with real profits and real success. They are the real thing.

Successful entrepreneurial companies

send a powerful signal to the next generation of entrepreneurs, those who may now be only teenagers, that they too can succeed, that they too can have a stake in the economy and in the future. Nothing is more important than energizing youth to take part in creating

the future of their country.