New unit can accommodate over 50 firms
Buoyed by the success of the Bahrain Business Incubator Centre, which has become a model for several nations in the Middle East and North Africa, the Kingdom has put into motion plans to set up a much bigger BD7 million Grand incubator centre calling for tenders to ground the project.
"This will be a big extension of the existing one that can accommodate more than 50 units and we will be finalising the tenders in four to six weeks from now," the Undersecretary at the Ministry of Finance, Shaikh Ebrahim bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, who is also the Chairman of Bahrain Development Bank, told Bahrain Tribune on the sidelines of the ongoing third Economic Forum for Businesswomen yesterday.
Four more business incubators were also in the pipeline in addition to the BD7 million Grand Incubator. The Bahrain Business Incubator Centre, initiated and owned by Bahrain Development Bank, supported by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and in co-operation with United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), was set up primarily to encourage the sprit of innovation and entrepreneurship among aspiring businessmen by providing them with an array of resources and services to sustain their business in the initial stages.
Reflecting the growing SME presence in the Kingdom's economy, he said the Bahrain Development Bank was on track in loan disbursal mechanism this fiscal with the number of loans sanctioned to prospective small and medium business enterprises reaching 375 by October-end when compared to 265 given in 2006, an increase of more than 90 per cent. "The bank is targeting sanction of 500 loans this year with the focus on women-owned businesses," he said. In the year 2005, the number of loans extended was 140.
The activities of the bank this fiscal in supporting the developing sector had registered increasingly tangible growth through the financing of the projects or the increase of beneficiaries as far as loan or mortgage.
"We are looking at projects that add value to the Kingdom's economy and the job creation potential they have. Innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial for the economic development and competitiveness of the kingdom, as they generate employment and contribute to the long term and sustainable growth. The effort is to enhance the performance and competitiveness of local enterprises by developing and distributing tools to help them meet changing market needs."
The BDB CEO Nedhal Saleh Al Aujan said the arrival of more and more small and medium enterprises in the kingdom reflected its business-friendly environment and the reservoir of opportunities available for start-ups. "Expanding the existing customer base by 200 per cent in three years time is high on our agenda. The focus is on start-ups and the booming SME businesses have necessitated the need for us to expand our funding capacities," he pointed out.
To reach out to the credit seeking prospective businessmen and women, plans were afoot to open three more branches by the 2008-09 fiscal at Hamad Town, Sitra where an excusive industrial finance branch would come up besides a SME service centre in one of the malls.
The Head of UNIDO-ITPO Bahrain Hashim Hussein said the focus was on development of an open trading and financial system that was rule-based, predictable and non discriminatory with commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction. The launch of an electronic programme in conjunction with the Women Gate and electronic investment programme was to enable Arab women to engage in investment opportunities, trading and exchange of information with their counterparts in the region and all over the world.
Workshops on 'Financial sources and access to small and medium enterprises', 'Role of Information Technology and appropriate infrastructure for development of SMEs' and 'Capacity building and trade facilitation' marked the last day of the forum at the largest gathering of Arab businesswomen - about 500 of them from 16 nations.
© Bahrain Tribune 2007
