BizBahrain Magazine Sep-Oct 2018

Government
Innovation in
sustainable Mobility
An era of electric and alternate
energy vehicles plying across the
superhighways in the Middle East
region is just around the corner. With an
objective to reduce the country’s carbon
footprint and develop a sustainable
economy, the Kingdom of Bahrain is set
to announce a series of initiatives that
will actively promote the use of ecofriendly
vehicles in the Kingdom, with a
plan to launch an experimental station to
charge electric cars.
This latest advancements in
environmentally friendly transportation
technologies were discussed at the
Mobility 360 Innovation in Sustainable
Mobility Conference in September.
The two-day conference, organised
by the ministry through Messe Frankfurt
Middle East, a leading trade show
organiser, and in partnership with the
Gulf Standardisation Organisation
featured a series of talks and panel
discussions along with an exhibition
showcasing hybrid vehicles.
The panel also discuss the paradigm
shift that the transport sector within the
Kingdom is set to witness.
Minister Zayed Alzayani mentioned
that this conference is a first step towards
developing the infrastructure to bring in
electric cars and encouraging people to
switch over to ecofriendly vehicles and
New marketing
campaign at Bahrain Airport
Passengers arriving and visitors
collecting friends and family at
Bahrain International Airport (BIA)
can now enjoy tariff-free parking at
Car Park A as part of a new marketing
campaign, BIA’s operator and managing
body, Bahrain Airport Company (BAC),
announced.
The Eat and Park for Free Campaign,
which starts on 19 August and runs until
31 October, entitles visitors who spend
implement the national energy efficiency
target of six per cent by 2025 as part of an
action plan to reduce gas pollutions.
“Electrical vehicles will definitely
play a significant role in achieving a
target of implementing the plan endorsed
by the Cabinet of Bahrain, which sets a
national energy efficiency target of six
per cent by 2025,” Alzayani said.
Saud bin Nasser Al Khusaibi, GCC
Standardisation Organisation (GSO)
secretary general mentioned that ,
“the technical regulations for the Gulf
are currently being issued concerning
the safety requirements of electrical
vehicles. The GSO will soon be preparing
draft technical regulations for the GCC
related to self-propelled vehicles and
the necessary technical infrastructure.
GSO required manufacturers to apply the
technical regulations for the vehicles
through the GCC Conformity Certificate.”
Officials from the Sustainable Energy
Unit (SEU) also took part in several panel
discussions during the event, with talks
on transforming Bahrain into a ‘Smart
Nation’, parking requirements for the
future, and transitioning into greener
technologies.
Dr Abdulhussain Mirza, Electricity
and Water Affairs Minister revealed
that, “The first experimental station for
charging electric cars in Bahrain will
be announced soon, and new locations
for power stations across the kingdom
will be identified in co-ordination with a
number of concerned authorities. Bahrain
is on the right track to use electric cars
and increase its spread on the streets of
the kingdom. Electric cars have many
advantages that make them a promising
future choice thanks to them being
environmentally friendly.”
BD4 at any of the food outlets or coffee
shops in the Arrivals Hall to two hours of
free parking at BIA’s premium car park.
BAC is the authority responsible
for enhancing BIA and increasing
the airport’s contribution to the local
economy in line with Bahrain’s Economic
Vision 2030. In its operational role, BAC
is responsible for elevating the airport’s
operations, infrastructure and services.
This is set to improve BIA’s capabilities
and cater to the growing number of
passengers as well as the changing
demands of stakeholders.
SeedFuel Rowad program
by BDB supports Inagrab
SeedFuel Rowad is an entrepreneurial
funding program by Bahrain
Development Bank. It is a pioneer
accelerator program in Bahrain,
providing startups at seed an early
stages with coaching, mentoring,
training, access to investors and
networks, special startup services and
perks, and up to BHD25,000 in equity
investment funding.
Inagrab is one of the startups
supported by SeedFuel program.
Inagrab is an artificially intelligent deal
assistant that optimizes the online seller
performance by recommending where to
capitalize using real time market data.
The online platform also helps
you get its data from the most reliable
resources and it displays them to you in
a way that makes your life easier.
Hussain Mohamed Ali, Co-Founder
and CEO of Inagrab mentioned that,
“Inagrab was just an idea when we
approached the SeedFuel program.
We were able to create an MVP in a
very quick pace in order to present
and potentially secure a pre-seed
investment. The SeedFuel program
gave us access to much needed funds to
evolve our business into what it is today,
and allowed us to comfortably pivot
when we saw the need to. We also love
the access to the coaches and mentors
plusthe team understands our unstable
and constantly changing nature as
startup founders.
“We were able to create better
versions of our initial app (which
we consider a vanity addition to our
current platform), and we were also
able to identify several market gaps and
re-iterate into launching something
that actually satisfies these gaps
today, without sacrificing the aspect of
potential scalability on an international
level since that was a very interesting
side of our product then. Some figures
were over 100k installs on our app, and
over 40 stores connected to our pilot
phase of the market intelligence/sales
module we launched,” he added.
Inagrab is aspiring to become the
provider of a “Unicorn" product coming
out of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
September-October 2018
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