Industry minister inaugurates JWEF

Manama, Feb. 16 (BNA): Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani has patronised the opening of the Junior World entrepreneurship Forum (JWEF). This forum is held for the first time in Bahrain within the Arabian Gulf and Middle East countries and organized by Origin Group in collaboration with the UNIDO, the British Council, and the University of Applied Sciences. On this occasion, the minister delivered a speech stating that "this forum goes in line with the ministry strategy to develop small businesses and entrepreneurship and to create more of their contribution in the Bahrain economy." He added " what we have today in the economy of Bahrain is a huge gap between government, semi government and privately owned companies and small businesses, we don’t have a sector that occupies the middle practic of the economy." The minister confirmed ministry’s continuous support to the small and medium enterprises and startup entrepreneurship because SMEs is the future of Bahrain. Bahrain started many years ago in forefront of international trade, today there are a lot of well established businesses. Many businesses started their operations outside Bahrain due to the limited size of the economy. The minister said that "economic projects began more than 100 years ago despite the absence of the technology, difficult travel conditions and banking terms, but they go adventure to unknown territories and established their businesses." The minister stressed encouragement to the SMEs, to change the mind of youth from job seekers to job providers. Also encouraging leaders, society and youth to take risk and establish their own business to become job providers, so they contribute more in the economy. The minister affirmed that youth is not restricted by age, there is no age limit to start a business. The minister add that " we believe so much in SMEs and the development of SMEs and entrepreneurship, we become the regulatory and supervisory for Bahrain Stock Exchange as it was agreed 10 days ago. The minister also stressed on the importance of learning from our mistakes, failure should be used to strengthen messages and results to stand up again, to develop talent and to be stronger for the next opportunity and challenge." It should be noted that the forum attracts a group of entrepreneurs from the region who have a notable success in the field of entrepreneurship stories. The forum aims to overcome the current challenges in the region that affect all segment of the society in particular youth by introducing them to entrepreneurship concept, types and skills that must be provided in pioneering work and the process of success to expand from small enterprises to largest enterprises.