Algerian Radio
More than 100,000 labeling requests have been submitted through the start-up.dz platform, stated Chamseddine Benmoussat, Director of Startups and Support Structures at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Startups, and Micro-enterprises, on Sunday.
As the first guest of the week on the "L'invité du jour" (Guest of the Day) program on Channel 3 of the Algerian Radio, Mr. Benmoussat, who also serves as the President of the National Labeling Committee at the Ministry, assured that the process of requesting one of the four labels offered by this committee—namely, the "Innovative Project," "Startup," "Incubator," and "Scale-up" labels—is 100% digitized and accessible 24/7 on the start-up.dz platform.
However, the acceptance rate for these labels does not exceed 15% for startups and 20% for innovative projects.
According to the speaker, this low rate can be explained by two factors. The first is that certain sectors are saturated, such as e-commerce and e-services, whereas the committee, which recently tightened its awarding criteria, wishes to receive applications targeting strategic sectors like the water economy, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, new technologies, critical technologies, agriculture, renewable energy, and healthcare.
The second point concerns the applicants' files themselves. Mr. Benmoussat informed that 50% of the files are ineligible to go before the committee due to a lack of a prototype, a business model, or true innovation.
"In an effort to help label applicants better develop their requests, we formulate reservations that are transmitted to the project developers so they can either complete or mature the prototype, or provide access for the prototype to be tested," the Channel 3 guest indicated.
When asked about the composition of the newly installed "startups" and "innovative projects" labeling committee, Mr. Benmoussat stated that the committee, which he chairs, must keep pace with the changes in the ecosystem.
"Since its creation in 2020, the committee has been enriched by other components of the Ministry and other actors in the ecosystem. Currently, we have fourteen members. Eleven belong to different ministries and three are ecosystem actors, whether they be incubators, experts in current technologies like AI and cybersecurity, or representatives from employers' associations," he revealed, adding that it is important to have perspectives from both the ecosystem and independent third parties.
