Madinah, December 27, 2021, SPA -- Semifinalists of the MITEF Startup competition in Saudi Arabia and the Arab world have been announced by the MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab Region and the MIT Enterprise Forum Saudi Arabia. The competition, which covers three tracks (startups, ideas, and social entrepreneurship), is to organize the closing ceremony on February 23, 2022, at the King Salman International Convention Center in Madinah Semifinalists were selected by a panel of 150 judges, who are business and academic experts from all around the universe. More than 2,600 submitted projects coming from 20 Arab countries were evaluated as per the competition criteria gauging creativity, scalability and the positive impact on society. At the top of the list came the ideas track with 1,466 candidates, followed by startups with 853 entries and social entrepreneurship with 288 entries. The semifinalists are to be hosted by the Taibah University training camp which will be held in the university campus in Madinah on February 17-18, 2022 and will be supervised by specialized trainers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). The second judging round is to be launched on February 20, 2022 to announce the finalists; while the third, which will select the winners, will be on February 22. The Startups Investment Forum will be held in Saudi Arabia over February 21, 22 and 23, 2022. --SPA 15:50 LOCAL TIME 12:50 GMT 0014 www.spa.gov.sa/w1670488