The Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) and the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate to boost innovation in fin-tech, ICT, IoT start-ups, and other related sectors.

The agreement aims to build business opportunities for each country’s start-ups in the other’s market.

It will facilitate delegation visits to Bahrain and India (Kerala), collaboration on knowledge exchange and best practices about educational programs and curricula.

It will enhance cooperation between financial and technological institutions, universities, research institutions, technology experts, and government agencies.

Also, the two sides will cooperate on the development and growth of fin-tech and ICT start-ups and centers with support from hubs like the Bahrain Fintech Bay, Brinc Batelco IoT Accelerator, Flat6 Labs Bahrain, Brilliant Lab, and the KSUM Hub.

These centers will explore innovation projects in areas such as digital and mobile payments, blockchain and distributed ledgers, big data, flexible platforms (API), AML, eKYC, and other emerging areas in fin-tech and ICT.

The EDB, in a press release, stated that Bahrain and India have had commercial ties for thousands of years with trade currently standing at some US $1.3 billion.

Fin-tech and ICT are already a key focus for collaboration between the two countries, with a similar MoU signed by the EDB and the government of Maharashtra last year.

Indian cryptocurrency exchange Belfrics is one of several fin-tech’s testing innovative technologies in Bahrain’s regulatory sandbox, and in the first half of 2019 alone, eight new projects in Bahrain’s ICT sector were started by Indian companies – more than any other country – bringing investments worth more than the United States $3 million.

Source