German companies are sharing best practices in innovation to drive the Kingdom's growth and youth development, exhibitors announced at the Janadriyah Festival. At this year's Janadriyah Festival, Germany is the country of honor under the theme of the "Land of Ideas: Innovation Has Tradition". Demonstrating the strong innovation opportunity, 60 percent of the Kingdom's employers believe technology supports business growth, according to the recent "MENAT Business Outlook" survey by The Economist Corporate Network. Germany and the Kingdom enjoy strong trade ties, with 10 billion euros in 2014, according to the German-Saudi Arabian Liaison Office for Economic Affairs. One of the world's leading business software companies, SAP, will be exhibiting at the German pavilion. At their stand, SAP is demonstrating how real-time analytics can drive innovation in the fields of Smart Cities, football and sport, and retail. "The Kingdom's business leaders are among the most adept at adopting the latest technology solutions in cloud, mobility, and social media. We're dedicated to supporting the Kingdom's digitization and diversified economic growth, and training Saudi youth to succeed in the Digital Economy," said Ahmed Al-Faifi, Managing Director, SAP Saudi Arabia. By 2017, the four most in-demand skills in the Kingdom will be Big Data analytics, cloud, social media, and mobility, according to the "Workforce 2020" survey by Oxford Economics. Since 2012, SAP's Training and Development Institute has trained over 5,000 students through 35 University Alliance Partners in the Kingdom, with an in-country value of $31 million. — SG
