Labour Fund receives positive response on joint initiative to showcase Bahrain ICT SMEs at GITEX

"The response from our target group, which are ICT-based SMEs has been exciting - for them, the initiative is a welcome step to showcase the Kingdom's rich capabilities at a regional industry and will open new avenues of growth in terms of networking and business opportunities," commented Senior Manager, Private Sector Support, Labour Fund (LF), Mr. Mohammed Bucheery, "We have very few places left in the Bahrain Pavilion that we are putting together and have extended our deadline to Thursday August 21st to enable companies to stretch to the finish line on this one!"

The companies that have so far signed up for the initiative include SMEs that are part of the Labour Fund's Growth Assistance Programme(GAP). GAP aims at enabling the SMEs to enhance their competitiveness and potential to grow through providing them resources and access to expertise to develop their product and marketing strategies, and explore opportunities to export to the regional and international markets through participating in trade exhibitions or opening representative offices, for instance.

Participating in the Bahrain Pavilion are Microcenter, BITS Information Technology, Mazin Computer Centre, Gulf Future Business, Hi-Tech WLL, Al-Nadeem Information Technology amongst others, in addition to the e-Government Agency and other ministries.

The Labour Fund, Bahrain's e-Government agency, the ICT Committee of the BCCI and the Bahrain Internet Society are working together to enable the participation of Bahrain's ICT community and to showcase Bahrain's expertise and capabilities on a regional level.

Enabling the participation of SMEs in the ICT sector is part of the LF's larger ambitious plan to promote growth among Bahrain's private sector. The LF's Enterprise Development Scheme (EDS) allows SMEs to stimulate their development and growth by underwriting or assisting technological, management and administrative upgrades, training and also enabling access to world-class consultants who can advise the SMEs on future plans.

"With Bahrain forging ahead as a reliable and strategic regional partner in the booming ICT industry which depends on leading edge knowledge and trend-spotting, we felt that GITEX, which is a premier technology show in the region, offers an ideal platform for Bahrain-based ICT organisations to exhibit their services and explore the potential of penetrating new regional or international markets,"

Bucheery said.

Added the advisor of the Bahrain Internet Society and member of the ICT Committee at the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Ahmed Al Hujairy, "The kind of exposure to world ICT trends and the networking opportunities that Bahrain SMEs can avail of at GITEX will boost business for them and spread Bahrain's fine reputation for top-quality ICT business. We are fully behind the LF on this project and we want to see more and more Bahraini SMEs participating in trade exhibitions or opening representative offices."

Bucheery pointed out that Bahrain is in line with other countries such as Singapore, India, Ireland, and Australia, in providing resources to enable the SMEs to enhance their competitiveness and productivity to capture business opportunities internationally and to internalise knowledge and best practices within the Bahraini market.