Under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, Governor of the Eastern Province, the “Shour Dulani Asharqia 2026” event concluded on the evening of Wednesday, August 26, 2026. It was held through a joint collaboration between the Dulani Business Center (an initiative of the Social Development Bank) and Asharqia Chamber, represented by the Asharqia Young Businessmen Council, in the presence of Chairman of Asharqia Chamber’s Board of Directors, Fahad bin Abdullah Al-Farraj, the Executive Vice President for Business at the Social Development Bank, Abdullah bin Saad Al-Ruwais, and the Director General of the Dulani Business Center, Osama bin Sulaiman Al-Salloum.
The forum, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 25 and 26, at the Chamber’s headquarters, aimed to empower entrepreneurs and the owners of startups and small and medium enterprises by providing specialized advice and connecting them with high-quality expertise, in support of their next steps, the development of their projects, and the enhancement of their growth and sustainability opportunities.
In a global achievement, “Shour Dulani Asharqia 2026” set a new Guinness World Record after delivering 523 specialized consultations for the development of startups in less than 8 hours on the first day, thereby achieving the largest number of startup development consultations delivered within this period worldwide. The Chamber had the honor of presenting the achievement to the forum’s patron, His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, Governor of the Eastern Province, in the form of the Guinness World Records certificate, in appreciation and gratitude for His Highness’s support and constant patronage of the youth and entrepreneurs of the Eastern Province. His Highness also honored the sponsors of the “Shour Dulani Asharqia 2026” forum in appreciation of their role in supporting the initiative and contributing to achieving its goals.
The “Shour Dulani Asharqia 2026” forum saw the participation of more than 100 consultants and experts providing specialized consultations to more than 979 male and female entrepreneurs over the two days of the forum, in 8 promising fields and sectors: tourism, electronic games, digital marketing, artificial intelligence, business development, energy, finance and financing, and logistics, with the aim of helping entrepreneurs develop their ideas, address the challenges facing their projects, and make decisions based on knowledge and experience.
For his part, Asharqia Chamber Chairman, Fahad bin Abdullah Al-Farraj, affirmed that the “Shour Dulani Asharqia 2026” forum reflects the role played by the Chamber in supporting and developing the region’s business environment and strengthening integration between private sector institutions and the national entities concerned with empowering small and medium enterprises.
Al-Farraj explained that the forum presented a practical model for drawing on diverse expertise and specializations to support startups, by making specialized consultations available to entrepreneurs and helping them face the challenges standing in the way of their projects, contributing to enhancing growth and sustainability opportunities. He affirmed that the forum’s achievement of a Guinness World Record, as the largest number of startup development consultations worldwide, embodies the ability of national partnerships to launch high-quality initiatives with a tangible economic impact, and represents a valuable addition to the forum’s developmental outcomes. It confirms the importance of providing direct channels that bring entrepreneurs together with specialists and experts, enabling startup owners to obtain practical solutions to the challenges they face and supporting the transition of their projects to more advanced stages of growth and expansion. He commended the efforts made by the Asharqia Young Businessmen Council and the Dulani Business Center, an initiative of the Social Development Bank, in organizing the forum and providing the support and expertise needed to serve entrepreneurs, affirming that this partnership represents an effective model of integrating national efforts and uniting capabilities and expertise in service of the small and medium enterprises sector.
For his part, the Chairman of the Asharqia Young Businessmen Council, Rami Saleh Al-Sayed, explained that the “Shour Dulani Asharqia 2026” forum gave entrepreneurs a high-quality experience that provided them with direct access to consultants and specialized expertise, and the benefit of practical guidance to develop their establishments. He noted that the forum’s Guinness World Record, for delivering this large number of startup development consultations in less than 8 hours, reflects the scale of engagement and turnout the forum witnessed, and confirms entrepreneurs’ need for platforms that bring them together with experienced professionals and provide them with practical solutions that help develop their businesses and enhance their readiness for growth.
He added that this global achievement highlights the impact of high-quality initiatives in supporting the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and reflects the importance of partnerships in enabling young people to access expertise and best practices, contributing to the growth of their establishments, raising their competitiveness, and supporting the targets of Vision 2030.
He said that the Asharqia Young Businessmen Council’s support for entrepreneurs stems from its belief in the importance of integrating knowledge with applied experience, as two fundamental pillars for building more efficient and sustainable projects, which the forum embodied by bringing together an elite of consultants and experts with startup owners in a single interactive environment.
This achievement confirms the continuing role played by the Social Development Bank in supporting and empowering entrepreneurs and the owners of ideas and projects, through an integrated system of programs, initiatives, and services that help turn ideas into promising projects and enhance the growth and sustainability of establishments. The Dulani Business Center also continues to provide its high-quality non-financial services and initiatives to support the entrepreneurial journey and enable entrepreneurs to acquire the tools and knowledge needed for success and excellence, in keeping with the targets of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.