The Economic Development Board (EDB), in partnership with Bahrain Polytechnic, today hosted a launch event for the Kingdom’s membership of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a non-profit academic research consortium that aims to provide quality information on global entrepreneurship activities.
Started as a partnership between London Business School and Babson College in 1999, GEM now conducts research in over 75 economies worldwide. The research, based on an assessment of the level of national entrepreneurship activity for all participating countries, involves an exploration of the role of entrepreneurship in national economic growth. Data from GEM National Teams is widely used by prestigious international publication such as the World Competitiveness Report, INSEAD Innovation Indices, UN Reports and global business press.
The ‘Bahrain GEM National Team’, consisting of stakeholders from the EDB and Bahrain Polytechnic, will now lead the process of undertaking the necessary research during the remainder of 2014 to participate in the next GEM report, the world’s largest single study of entrepreneurial activity. At the event, presentations were provided on the benefits that participating will provide for Bahrain, and workshops were held on the two surveys to be undertaken, the ‘Adult Population Survey’ and the ‘National Expert Survey’. Welcome addresses were provided by Shaikh Hisham bin Abdulaziz Al Khalifa, Chairman of the Bahrain Polytechnic Board of Trustees, and H.E. Kamal bin Ahmed, Minister of Transportation and Acting Chief Executive of the EDB.
Speaking at the event, H.E. Kamal bin Ahmed said: “We are very proud to be joining the GEM community as a full member. Given Bahrain’s long trade history, entrepreneurship has always been a part of how we see ourselves, and the Kingdom recognised the critical importance of SMEs for successful economic diversification decades ago.
“A key precondition of success in driving the SME agenda forward is properly understanding what we have achieved and what needs to be done, and this is where the GEM project comes in. It can help us better understand what works and what is required, and gives us important information about the experiences of other countries which will help shape the Government’s strategy and programmes to support entrepreneurship. This will help us ensure that we are able to create and strengthen the right business fundamentals to support entrepreneurial success – the skilled national workforce, open economy, and low operating costs that have underpinned economic growth in the Kingdom.”