Introduction

The following paper evaluates the role of Technology Innovation Centres (TICs) in helping Bahrain evolve into a knowledge-based economy. The TIC is “a critical element to deliver governmental or wider public sector, policies, and strategies to promote innovation” (Hauser, 2010: 9). Generally, TICs promote various roles in addressing the challenges of technological commercialisation and in overcoming barriers of innovation. TICs are strong platforms for transnational connections and are used as knowledge transfer hubs. Bahrain’s economy clearly recognizes the necessity to shift from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based economy – especially with the ongoing fall in oil prices worldwide.

This chapter examines an emerging economy focusing on its capability to utilise TICs as knowledge-based facilitators for economic growth. A comparative assessment of Bahrain and Qatar reveals that in comparison to Qatar, Bahrain has lacked the motivation to deploy TICs for innovation and technology development. Qatar, on the other hand, has expanded TICs in many forms with substantial international connections and collaborations.

One of Bahrain’s experiences toward setting up TICs is the engagement between JAFCON Consultants and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce on a unique national project called the “Subcontracting & Industrial Partnership”, whose objective was to help Bahraini small and medium enterprises (SMEs) manufacture industrial products that used to be imported. The project identified 399 imported products for these Bahraini-based SMEs to manufacture, collectively worth $1.6 billion. Based on this experience, the following chapter proposes the establishment of the Bahrain Industrial Partnership Innovation Centre (BIPIC), a technology innovation centre to help Bahraini SMEs and entrepreneurs manufacture imported products in Bahrain. BIPIC intends to provide technical and other supports for localizing these imported products. BIPIC plans to be a platform for enabling transnational intellectual linkages between experts in Bahrain and elsewhere and to attract foreign direct investments.

Bahrain’s vision for 2030 is an economic roadmap to develop Bahrain with the ultimate goal of enhancing the standard of living for Bahrainis. The vision is based on creating a knowledge-based economy instead of depending on an oil-based economy. This paper focuses on the core areas of a knowledge economy: technology and innovation. As acknowledged by the World Economic Forum (WEF), “in the long run, standards of living can be enhanced only by technological innovation” (Schwab, 2010-2011: 8).

Fagerberg (2006) states that while invention is the idea for a new product or process, innovation is the commercialisation of that idea. Inventions can be carried out in universities or laboratories by an inventor. By contrast, innovation is performed by an entrepreneur in a commercial context.