Bahraini women urged to embrace entrepreneurship

 Manama : Women need to be more financially independent and economically strong and for this they should embrace entrepreneurship, said Ahlam Janahi, the newly elected president of Bahrain Businesswomen Society. The board also elected Feryal Nass as the first vice president, Sheikha Mariam bint Hamad Al Khalifa as second vice president, and board members Khulood Alqattan, Fatma Delawar, Vicky Muawad, Huda Janahi, manal Siddiqi, Nawal Al Sabbagh, Mariam Al Arrayedh and Jameela Attasi.

Ms Janahi highlighted a joint plan of action along with various government departments to empower entrepreneurs, startups and SME’s and help women attain their economic goals. “We need to closely work with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism and the Economic Development Board and act as a link between entrepreneurs, businesswomen and government agencies to discuss the changes in the local market and how women working in these areas can be empowered through an action plan that will enable them become more productive and economically independent citizens.”

“We are so thrilled to be there for the women in various fields and we will soon organise workshops " based on the requirements of the commercial sector. We will also propose laws and strategies for start-ups and small and medium enterprises with the help of economic advisors.”

“Our goals are as similar to the overall leadership’s vision, to develop omen in business and the economy in the global market in  order to achieve Vision 2030.” Echoing a similar view, Nawal Al Sabbagh said she has been a member of the society since 2000 and was elected the board member twice. This is her third election to the board. “Being a board member is a great responsibility. We need to give back to the society and we look forward to giving new ideas, helping women achieve economic independence and growth.

Although the challenges have always been there, we are looking forward to developing our  strategies alongside achieving the vision 2013.” “Moreover, our main focus is to improve the economy. This year, I am a member of the economic committee, and we will look into the banking sector and how we can develop and benefit women working in this sector.

“We will soon be working on our agenda for the coming years but we do realise the challenges in the market such as the lack of financing projects. We intend on promoting our production in the foreign markets as part of a plan to develop and grow various sectors.” Khulood Rashid Al Qattan said the society aims at attracting more businesswomen to join the society. “We want to even introduce training courses at very high levels. The main challenge we are currently facing is that most of the businesswomen are from the SME’s sector. Although it is a very important sector and a major contributor to our economy, there are major challenges, in terms of small market, high competition and low demand. We believe there are many things we need to improve, develop and depreciate in order to keep growing. So one of our main focus is going to be on how to grow their business, and how we can helpthem in terms of training, developing  their human resource, business plan and marketing strategies.”

“We also want to develop the entrepreneurship ideas and initiatives, and look into means of marketing their products and how to attract foreign  nvestments. We see a lot of women emerging in the IT sector, thuswe intend to develop a new committeeand promote the women in this area.”