Bahrain reaps rewards from investments in IT and startups

With the recent initiatives and investments in the startup and entrepreneurship space, governments in the Middle East have shown their willingness and intent to diversify away from the dependence on oil and gas. Even though the oil and gas sector still makes up a majority of most of the countries’ economies, the investments are a long-term focus to broaden the economic horizon of each specific country.

One of the countries that has identified the need for a tech-enabled, startup driven ecosystem in Bahrain. The country plans to build a national technology ecosystem that will help the country reduce its reliance on oil and gas, which is starting to show results, with young people looking to get IT jobs and government initiatives in the startup sector paying off their investments.

International accelerator programmes such as Brinc and Flat6Labs, which accelerate the adoption and growth of startups, have established subsidiaries in the Kingdom, and have already taken in local Bahraini startups to fuel the economy and accelerate their progress. Furthermore, Amazon Web Services (AWS) will operate a regional infrastructure hub from Bahrain this summer, which will nurture talent in a "tectonic shift for the region". Learn more about Bahrain’s push into the IT and startup space here.