Tamkeen Bahrain just hosted its annual Consultation Forum 2018 on December 3rd, bringing together more than 350 representatives of various industry in Bahrain, to voice out their feedback and concerns on Bahrain’s current economic ecosystem, Tamkeen services, what they need, and how can Tamkeen help them out with their startup or SME. Check out our live coverage here!
Held at the Ritz Carlton, the forum also reiterated Tamkeen’s 2018-2020 strategy which is striving towards diversifying, accelerating, and sustaining the Bahraini market. Tamkeen’s Chairman H.E Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa commented during his opening speech that this strategy was formulated on the basis of intensive coordination and outreach efforts with a wide segment of stakeholders from various sectors to further enhance Tamkeen’s support programs.
The forum as well highlighted Tamkeen’s achievements in 2018, in addition to its current and future plans for Bahrain’s economy with its 2018-2020 strategy (for a recap, click here). We’ve summarised them for you below:
Due to the continuous feedback received from Tamkeen’s customers, this resulted in the enhancement of their offerings. Tamkeen’s new services and support programs include:
- A new form of support. The introduction of Tamkeen’s investment arm.
- Export Development & Expansion Support. In collaboration with Export Bahrain, support SMEs to develop their export potential.
- Accelerator Support. New collaborations to accelerate the growth of 160+ Bahraini startups. Tamkeen has helped in bringing in accelerators such as C5 Accelerate, Flat6Labs, Nest, Brinc IoT Batelco Hub.
- Enhancements to Tamkeen’s Finance scheme. Increased financing limit by 100% with flexible profit rate cap.
- Cloud Computing Solutions. 100% subsidy to access Cloud Computing Services, under Tamkeen’s Enterprise Support program.
- Career Mentorship Solutions. Launch of the first phase of Tamkeen’s Career Mentorship Scheme.
One of Tamkeen’s core values is supporting individuals and helping them increase their career perspectives through its various programs. In 2018, the report showed some positive numbers:
- 23% increase in the total customers served in the professional certification. 47% of them were women.
- 149% increase in wage support
- 114% Increase in the total training support under the training & wage support
- 36% Increase in the total customers served under the youth programs
What does Tamkeen have scheduled in its pipeline for us?
Tamkeen has a couple of surprises for us in 2019, these include:
- New products such as:
-
-
- Support for Minimum Viable Products
- Renewable Energy Support
- VAT Transition Support
- Incubator Framework
- Practical and Mixed Mode Training Platform
-
- Increased Partnerships & Support such as:
-
-
- Supporting Export Bahrain
- Knowledge Sharing
- Investment Support
-
- Global Entrepreneurship Congress which expects more than 5000 attendees from all over the world. Of course, there are lots of benefits to Bahrain for being selected to host GEC 2019. These benefits include:
-
- Developing the Bahraini market
- International exposure for Bahraini entrepreneurs
- Knowledge transfer and shared experiences
- Highlighting Bahrain’s achievementsGEC will be held in April 2019 and Tamkeen has got a lot of seminars, workshops, and competitions prepared for all Bahrainis within different age groups:
- Hackathons
- Workshops and sessions
- 1-on-1 Mentorship
- Youth competition
- Entrepreneur awards
- Speed networking
- Pitching platforms
- GCC and achievements and plans
Tamkeen Bahrain surely is striving towards making Bahrain a “model ecosystem that supports the business sector”, as the Chief Executive Dr. Ebrahim Janahi puts its. According to him, Bahrain is on the cusp of a new era of economic measure that will contribute to supporting sustainable growth in the national economy, among the implementation of VAT at the beginning of 2019.
Bahrain has indeed gone through tremendous changes in the past couple of years and we remain hopeful and positive that things are going to get even better.
If you’d like a live recap of Tamkeen’s annual Consultation Forum 2018, check out our live coverage here. And if you’re interested in checking out what Tamkeen can offer you and your business, visit their website here.
Don’t forget to follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to be up to date with their future announcements.