Tamkeen nurtures Bahrain ICT SMEs

At a post-Gitex review meeting, more than 12 ICT-based Bahrain SMEs decided to build on the momentum generated by their participation and form a committee which will plan a roadmap for the next 18 to 24 months for improving the industry's resources and for planning further participations and activities that will foster international exposure.

Many of these companies participated in Gitex under Tamkeen's Growth Assistance Programme (GAP). GAP aims at enabling SMEs to enhance their competitiveness and potential to grow through providing them resources and access to expertise to develop their product and marketing strategies. The Gitex participation was put together to enable them to explore opportunities to export to regional and international markets through participating in trade exhibitions and open representative offices abroad.

The participating group will seek to highlight Bahrain's ICT-savvy e-Governance project and the availability of trained HR for the industry and help to create international partnerships that will use Bahrain as a regional hub. The newly-formed committee, when operational, will lay the groundwork with Tamkeen's support, for industry standards in the Kingdom.

"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 on terms of networking and business opportunities,"

commented Senior Manager, Private Sector Support, Tamkeen, Mr. Mohammed Bucheery.

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

"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, this GITEX participation has created an ideal platform for Bahrain-based ICT organisations to take their development to the next level," Bucheery said.

Mr. 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.

Mr. Mazin Al-Shehabi, Mazin Computers, shed light on the experience of SMEs and the participation of his company in Gitex, he said "Gitex has been a great opportunity to showcase Bahraini e-Capabilities, and to confirm that Bahrain is ready to present its IT potential to the world."

Mr. Mohammed Al-Qaed, Chief Executive of Bahrain's e-Government agency also affirmed the importance of Bahrain's participation in Gitex, saying, "Gitex was the ideal platform from which we were able to show case Bahrain as an advanced environment for e-Solutions and presented a chance to interact with other advanced IT markets through networking prospects with participating delegates."

The companies that participated at Gitex under Tamkeen's umbrella were Microcenter, BITS Information Technology, Mazin Computer Centre, Gulf Future Business, Hi-Tech WLL, Al-Nadeem Information Technology, as well as new ICT specialists such as Azimuth, Exceed IT Solutions, Winsoft Information Technology, and Al-Amthal Group.

Other partners are the ICT committee of the BCCI, Bahrain's e-Government agency and Bahrain Internet Society.