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Join Date: 05 Mar 2015
Location:  BahrainPosts: 49 |
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Building Internet city in Bahrain |
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Building Internet city in Bahrain
It is well-known that Bahrain is one of the leading countries in the Middle East with the highest number of university graduates in computer science and information technology (IT). Every year, hundreds of young Bahraini men and women graduate from various universities in Bahrain and overseas with high intelligence quotient. This is in addition to other graduates from Bahrain University, AMA, and Applied Science University, Bahrain Institute of Technology plus other specialised computer science software/hardware institutes. As a result IT in public and private sectors has more numbers of Bahraini nationals working in it than other fields. Consi-dering the high number of qualified IT professionals here, Bahrain must attract IT, telecommunication and information security companies to the kingdom, especially American multinational companies, such as HP, SUN, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, EMC, Dell, Siemens, Canon, Sony Ericsson, Cisco and others. Ten years ago, Dubai built a "Silicon Valley" outside the main city called "Dubai Internet City" which is currently the largest centre for multi-national IT and related technology companies in the Middle East. Many of the companies take regional, technical and sales offices in the computing village. The Dubai Internet City employs around 2,000 professionals, who are mainly from Europe, Indian Subcontinent, Far East and other non-GCC states. The revenue and economic growth behind this project has been tremendous in terms of expatriates expenses, housing, travel etc. The Internet city also is a key factor behind the success of GITEX exhibitions, Dubai's technological advances and its tourism development. While Dubai Internet City sells itself as a business-friendly environment with excellent low cost connectivity, the reality is that it is one of a heavily censored Internet with prices that are five-10 times the price of connectivity in Europe or the US. The recent economical downturn has affected major activities in Dubai such as construction and tourism but not much in this particular area of technology. We in Bahrain have a key differentiator to attract these giant companies and that is our qualified and experienced professionals in the area of computing and IT. The young Bahraini graduate men and women are assets for any global corporation who can easily integrate these talented Bahrainis in the GCC and Middle Eastern markets. Furthermore, Bahrain has strong infrastructure facilities, air transportation and telecommunications and being a multi-lingual nation it can act as a hub to attract more of these companies to make Manama as their regional offices for their Middle Eastern operations. Although some of them have very limited operations and activities in Bahrain and employ a small number of Bahrainis, our dream would be to offer a few thousand young Bahrainis opportunities to shine in these companies for years to come. Building a silicon valley in Bahrain can also attract many non-IT companies to set up their regional call centres such as Egypt, India and other developing countries. So let us plan and work towards building Bahrain's Internet City and contribute towards His Majesty King Hamad's Economic Vision 2030 which will turn Bahrain into a strong centre of the region's economy. Source:gulfdailynews http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=401706 |
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