business bites February 2022 53 www.bahrainthismonth.com Gulf Future Business (GFB), a Bahraini company, plans to open its first Business Centre located in Saudi Arabia’s business district area this year. GFB Business Centre will provide companies with a soft-landing zone into the Saudi market with a working space and support services to accelerate their market entry, support their ongoing operations and generate opportunities. The Gulf Future Business Centre of Business in Saudi Arabia was specifically designed to incubate ICT companies in addition to companies operating in other activities and have products, services, solutions, and expertise required by the Saudi market. The centre is currently prepared to incubate 15 companies, with the group hoping to expand further. “Saudi Arabia’s ICT sector has a 45 percent e-commerce share of the GCC market in 2021; and a 32 percent growth of the e-commerce market from 2015-2020. Big multinationals have already chosen Saudi Arabia due to its rapid growth of local FinTech services and a growing number of FinTech players leveraging the local investment ecosystem,” explains CEO of Gulf Future Business, Ahmed Al Hujairy. “Bahraini firms’ strong presence in the Saudi market, which is experiencing rapid expansion and unparalleled potential, will assist Bahrain’s economy by increasing returns and extending their share of this market,” he concludes. EXPANDING ACROSS BORDERS Ahlia University’s College of Information Technology and Thinksmart for Training and development have signed a partnership agreement which aims to provide internships for their IT Senior Students under its Forsati Programme. Launched in 2017, the Forsati Programme in partnership with Microsoft, aims to empower youth through employability and enhance the productivity of Bahraini IT professionals. The partnership guarantees a two-month internship for IT Senior students who will go through a series of professional training and certifications, aside from work experience with top Bahraini companies. “The success of our students has always been our top priority as we want to ensure that they are ready for the future. Over the years, we have seen how the Forsati Programme helped our students by providing them with the latest skills and valuable work experience with some of them leading to full-time roles,” says Dean of the College of Information Technology, Dr. Wasan Shakir Awad, Group CEO of Thinksmart, Ahmed AlHujairy, says: “This partnership enriches our relationship with Ahlia University, and we commend the commitment and leadership of Dr. Wasan for supporting the students.” Estimates of national accounts issued by the Information and E-Government Authority showed that Bahrain’s GDP grew in real prices by 2.09 percent and 10.19 percent at current prices in the third quarter of 2021. The national accounts report shows that the growth is due to the rise achieved by the non-oil sector by 3.76 percent in real prices and 5.94 percent at current prices. This was supported by transportation and telecommunications activity, which showed an improvement in its economic performance, growing by 25.78 percent in real prices and 14.69 percent at current prices from the third quarter of last year. The oil sector fell by 4.63 percent at real prices and increased by 39.95 percent at current prices compared to the same quarter of 2020. The results showed that government and private health services increased by 9.13 percent in real prices and 6.39 percent at current prices. Manufacturing grew by 15.62 percent at current prices while falling slightly in real prices by 0.26 percent. As for trade activity, it grew by 4.48 percent and 3.45 percent in real and current prices, respectively. GUARANTEED INTERNSHIPS The Recovery of the Non-Oil Sector
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