Research is the main mechanism to evolve and reach new frontiers. Research centers are considered as a treasure island where it supplies fortune and prosperity for the future. It helps to meet new latent demands. Unfortunately, in the Middle East, we do not have centers that perform research and development activities, major companies locate theirs in different locations of the world, either in the Far East, Europe or the United States for example. For the Kingdom of Bahrain, this is a big opportunity that is overlooked. Our Kingdom has a huge untapped potential and many supporting factors that can be used to create ideal environments to host research and development centers from all over the world.
We have big numbers of fresh graduates in our Kingdom in the field of information technology, whether specializing in computer science, computer engineering, networking, or management information systems. Those graduates have the needed passion and countless of new innovative ideas that are just waiting to become real, and their projects can be patented, and others can be enhanced further to build feasible marketable products
or services that can be sold and profited from.
Further, we have an abundance of skills in the Kingdom of Bahrain, we have local cadre who are well trained, certified and educated in many fields and technologies. And the labor force we have is strong and can serve greatly as the core of establishing and running the research and development centers. Using such local labor will also reduce the potential costs of running these centers instead of relying on expensive expertise brought from other countries.
There are other positive effects that can be obtained from establishing research and development centers, in an overall sense, they will strengthen the whole economy of the Kingdom. They will become the building block and connector between corporates and educational institutions for a strong fabric of economy. Hence, we need to start planning for the establishment of these centers with small steps first by harnessing the local caliber and the local innovation, which will open the door for bigger research projects.