Berytech welcomed Mr. Tijmen Rooseboom, the Ambassador for Youth, Education and Work of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who met with the youth enrolled in the Agrytech Accelerator.

 

Berytech, true to its mission in supporting entrepreneurs and startups, welcomed Mr. Tijmen Rooseboom – the Ambassador for Youth, Education and Work of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who met with the youth of the Agrytech Accelerator batches to better understand their vision for Lebanon including their political, socio-economical aspirations. Mr. Rooseboom was newly appointed by Minister Kaag for Foreign Trade and Development cooperation, to bridge the gap between education and work on giving perspective to youth focusing on education and work.

The visit started with a presentation of the ACT Smart Innovation Hub aiming at advancing innovative ideas in the Agri-Food and Cleantech sectors into successful businesses while solving local and regional problems and creating employment in Lebanon. Rooseboom was introduced to the previous activities undertaken during the past three years targeting youth to initiate them to entrepreneurship such as ideathons and hackathons.

Following the presentation, Rooseboom met with the youth from the recent and previous Agrytech accelerator batch 2 and 3 to understand their innovations as well as to discuss their political, social and economical aspirations.  Rooseboom shared: “For the Netherlands, it is very important to offer perspective to young people and the Embassy here in Beirut is focusing on education, youth employment and matching between skills people are acquiring and jobs opportunities, and I think this is what we saw here today matching the skills and the jobs.”

The gathering ended with a roundtable discussion with the youth on their aspirations and wishes for growing their ventures, dreams and concerns. Mr. Tijimen Rooseboom ended the conversation: “It was a very inspirational afternoon, especially seeing the young people dream and inspiration for Lebanon and the way they want to make it concrete and looking at the future.”

View Photo Album here.