MANAMA: An important objective of Bahrain’s Economic Vision 2030 is to transform the Kingdom’s oil dependent economy to a more diversified and developed economy that is productive and internationally competitive.
“Despite the presence of many creative and successful Bahraini entrepreneurs who spend tremendous efforts to grow their businesses to be sustainable and competitive, we are still lagging behind in this area and our startups continue to remain small and are internationally uncompetitive,” the Undersecretary of Industrial Affairs in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Osama Al Arrayedh said during the launch of the Bahrain SME Toolkit.
Held under the patronage of the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani, the Ministry adopted by the Ministry in partnership with International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in cooperation with Tamkeen, Bahrain Development Bank and Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“It is imperative that our micro enterprises grow to small enterprises and small enterprises progress to medium level to enable us to sustain and expand our economic growth.”
“Today, we live in a technology era dominated by multimedia avenues which were not previously available, this offers us a new way to reach out and respond to our customers. We have a reasonable presumption that 80 to 90% Bahraini SME’s already use some form of electronic data transmission. This online Bahrain SME Toolkit with its technical content sourced from International Finance Corporation would go a long way in meeting the information and self-learning needs of our SME’s”, the Undersecretary of Industry Affairs added.
The Head of IFC GCC Middle East and North of Africa Waleed Al Murshed delivered a speech urging on supporting and developing SMEs which are considered as the economic backbone of any country due to its role in GDP growth and job creation.
The First Vice-Chairman of Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Othman Alryes also delivered a speech confirming that cultivating innovation and supporting SMEs and entrepreneurship contribute to a more developed knowledge based economy characterized by a more sustainable economic growth.
The Deputy General Manager of non-financial services division of Bahrain Development Bank Shaikh Hisham bin Mohamed Al Khalifa focused during his speech on the importance of being online in order to be accessible to SMEs.
Whereas, the Vice President for Human Capital Development in Tamkeen Amal Al Koheji delivered a speech in which she expressed on the necessity of developing the private sector and making it the key driver of economic growth through supporting and providing opportunities for one of the main pillars of the global economy which are the entrepreneurs and individuals with creative and innovative ideas.
The creation of the SME Toolkit of Bahrain came to provide the SMEs with easily accessible and adequate information at one place along with technologically advanced tools & globally relevant knowledge content on how to expand businesses while filling the gaps in the existing services.
The local content of the SME Toolkit varies to include guides on starting and registering a new business, regulatory information, schemes of assistance, investment opportunities, mentoring & export advice, business directories, market and trade statistics, tender information & buy-sell bulletin boards amongst other business related information will complement the globally relevant learning content and tools on various aspects of running a business.
During the launch event, an introductory workshop was conducted to highlight the most important contents of the Toolkit and how to use and benefit from it.