Have you ever wondered how come Bahrain, despite its relatively smaller size and population, has managed to emerge a dominant player in the Middle East’s thriving startup scene? Well, for starters, its an amalgamation of several factors including a educated, skilled an ambitious younger generation, excellent communication, and an overall favorable environment for conducting business.
But if you delve any deeper, you might also be pleasantly surprised by the level of institutionalized support emerging businesses receive in the Kingdom. You can gauge the degree of this overwhelming support by the fact that even parking slots in Bahrain’s capital city have been made cheaper for entrepreneurs and basically everyone actively linked with the homegrown startup scene.
Yes, parking spots! You read that right!
Bahrain Car Parks Co BSC, a public sector shareholding company, has announced that it is offering startup accelerators and their portfolio companies a 50% discount on all parking slots at the heart of Manama. This may not seem like that big a move to some outsiders, but the recipient of this offer are most likely pretty thrilled considering the high-demand of parking space in the city and the subsequent sharp increase in costs.
Bahrain Car Parks Co is registered with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and it offers an array of services including car park site management and support; supply, installation, and maintenance of state-of-the-art car parking management and guidance system; development of car parking facilities; and renting of commercial office space in BCPC-owned properties.
Speaking of this new discount offer to accelerators such as brinc, Flat6Labs and Tenmou, They said: “It’s our company policy towards Corporate Social Responsibility and contributing our part to the society helping to support and encourage new business developments in our Kingdom.”
So if you thought the Bahraini government’s commitment to the homegrown startup scene was limited to building only state-of-the-art Special Economic Zone infrastructure, communication, and enacting innovative regulatory sandboxes, you’re only partially correct. The latest move by Bahrain Car Parks Co. signifies that the collaboration between the public and private sector enterprises in the Kingdom has been optimized to address even the most mundane aspects of day-to-day operations so budding entrepreneurs can focus on the tasks they’re most proficient in: innovation and building a business.