Entrepreneurship moves Bahrain's economy towards vision 2030

Bahrain, January 10, 2011
Bahraini entrepreneurs are creating their own endeavors and making strides in the business sector and developing Bahrain's economy and achieving the Economic Vision 2030. The Kingdom of Bahrain is hosting the 10th International Entrepreneurship Forum, Bahrain 2011, today in line with its long standing national initiatives to build an encouraging platform for the youth to participate and lead entrepreneurial development.

The prestigious forum is being hosted in the Gulf for the fist time under the patronage of the Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa at Isa Cultural Hall.

Organized by Tamkeen in partnership with the Centre for Entrepreneurship Research, University of Essex and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the two-day event focuses on building a knowledge-based economy and aims to encourage Bahrain's youth to participate in the national development process with their talents and capabilities through entrepreneurial projects.

This major conference is a great push for Bahrain's economy and helps it achieve the goals of the Economic Vision 2030. The main goals of the vision concentrate on developing and modernising the economic system and with this forum, experts and entrepreneurs can gain international insight and knowledge to overcome local, regional and international challenges. Participating in such a conference will also make them better understand the workings of the entrepreneurial world and gain further information on how to attract foreign investments.

Among Bahrain's pioneering initiatives to support the youth in the private sector is the labor market reforms, which contribute to creating an entrepreneurial culture in Bahrain, where Tamkeen and several organizations, government bodies and ministries play a major role in supporting young Bahraini entrepreneurs and creating a foundation for them in the economy.

Tamkeen has contributed to developing this sector, especially in the field of enhancing human resources and supporting the private sector, such as providing the entrepreneurs with the essential help to start off, important knowledge of the market, flourish their ideas and projects and help them get the necessary financial means.

International studies have revealed that the age group for successful future entrepreneurs in the majority of the world's countries is from 18 years old to 34 years old, which comprises of the most educated and skilled of a country's population. The Entrepreneurship Global Indicator 2008 showed that if young people are taught the importance of entrepreneurship and are allowed to think outside the box while still at school then they are more likely to move into that sector after graduation.

There is a current wave of interest from Arab youth to becoming entrepreneurs, which reflects on the level of attention Arab nations and top economists and investors are placing on the issue. But the challenge lies in the lack of Arab resources available to lead the youth in the right direction, which is why it is extremely necessary to develop the current resources and create a knowledge-based market towards entrepreneurship in order to lead the youth in the proper direction with minimum loses.

Entrepreneurship plays a major role in creating new markets, finding new resources, introducing new technologies and establishing innovative economic systems. It has been claimed that entrepreneurship has a direct result on finding new resources as entrepreneurs don't like working with traditional or conventional resources, therefore they strive to discover new resources to increase competition, which fuels innovation and results in the economy's growth. Also entrepreneurship affects the movement of capital and its resources as entrepreneurs become empowered to be control of end products and all the workings, labour and production in between to provide a high end service or product.

Entrepreneurship also helps in decreasing the unemployment rate as the private sector is the largest arena that offers new job opportunities.

Millions of job opportunities are provided by factories, service industries, agricultural companies and small and medium business enterprises, which increases the economic growth in general. Therefore, entrepreneurship results in a large number of employment opportunities which results in more income resulting in the creation of more products and services that lead up to a rise in production demand. This consequently results in the creation of more jobs.

Entrepreneurship also takes the country's economy into a whole new direction as it encourages the creation of businesses in rural areas and supports the production of local goods and services. Entrepreneurs also contribute to increasing income and economic growth, which fuels competition thus creating high quality products within the economy. One of its main advantages is that it encourages the use of technology in small productions to create high end products and strives to conduct researches and studies to develop the capabilities and approaches of the local market.

This newly established business environment created by entrepreneurs will no doubt contribute to creating new markets, resources, technologies and job opportunities in Bahrain by encouraging young Bahraini to be part of society and put their ideas and projects forth.