Banque du Liban organizes its third edition of “BDL Accelerate 2016” on November 3, 4 and 5, 2016

Banque du Liban – The Central Bank of Lebanon is organizing Lebanon’s third annual international conference, and officially the biggest and most influential on the Mediterranean and in the MENA region, “BDL Accelerate 2016” on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 3, 4, 5 November 2016 at Forum de Beyrouth.

The theme for this year's event is "Innovation: Intrapreneurship VS Entrepreneurship". Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes. In large enterprises it's called INTRApreneurship; in small startups it's called ENTREpreneurship and BDL Accelerate 2016 will bring it all together in the newest addition, The Innovation Theater. The Innovation Theater is a dynamic, interactive space featuring dozens of startups and large enterprises showcasing their ground-breaking innovations from around the world. At the heart of The Innovation Theater, a custom-built amphitheater will open our minds to the world of tomorrow through a series of curated inspirational keynotes and panels.

The first headline speaker for “Banque du Liban Accelerate 2016” will be Steve "The Woz" Wozniak, the Silicon Valley icon who founded Apple with Steve Jobs. Tony Fadel, the Founder and CEO of Nest company will be also a speaker during the event, talking about his achievements in the innovation and technology world.

Company executives, tech influencers and innovation gurus will fly in from 195 cities in 52 countries, shattering all Mediterranean conference records. And this year there will be 20,000 attendees from all over the world, with over 1,000 internationals, 4,000 professionals, 3,000 entrepreneurs and 2,000 students, interacting in discussions, dialogues and conferences spread over 9 platforms.

Supporting startups 

In the same context, Mrs. Marianne Hoayek, Head of the Executive Office of the Central Bank of Lebanon, and the Supervisor and Organizer of BDL Accelerate 2016, said that “the Central Bank of Lebanon has followed since mid-August 2013 the strategy of encouraging commercial banks to invest in Lebanese startups, so it issued the circular number 331 stating to support Knowledge Economy. And in an aim to guarantee its success and to show the importance of these startups, Banque Du Liban is organizing this international conference.” Mrs. Hoayek added: “The conference aims to gather entrepreneurs and investors, to promote related activities and to offer investment opportunities, where a number of speakers from Lebanon and abroad will tackle the subjects of success plans and their opinions about the success of startups”. Mrs. Hoayek finished by saying: “The Central Bank of Lebanon is going beyond offering the necessary funding for startups because it aims to revitalize Knowledge Economy, encourage banks to share their contacts, support startups in training and guidance, in addition to facilitating all logistics in order to help them.” 

Circular 331

Banque Du Liban issued circular 331 in 2013 which allows banks to be investment partners in startups, where the Central Bank of Lebanon offers 75% of this investment. It also allows banks to use 3% of their capital to invest in startups with few exceptions. For this kind of investments related to Lebanese companies and Lebanese investment funds, financial guarantees were implemented, in order to have a digital technology sector in Lebanon.