raise enough start-up capital and started a wholesale business with his wife, distributing natural pearls to various retailers in Bahrain. By 2014, he was running an increasingly successful business so he decided to quit his job and focus on it full-time. In 2017, Harshad joined the (EDIP) program. Because he was considering expansion, he found the program to be a timely opportunity for him to update his knowledge on all business related matters. By the end of the program, he learned how to effectively integrate new and creative ideas into his to expand his market reach and how to take calculated risks in order to achieve the growth he was seeking. Additionally, he was able to meet other like-minded entrepreneurs and build strong business relationships. . Harshad’s 2017 Bab-al Bahrain project was initiated Culture, who were referred to him through UNIDO’s ITPO representatives who continue to support him to this day. This project (which took 6 months to complete) was inspired by the traditional Bahraini necklace “Martasha”. The decorative piece consists of 20 thousand gold plated coin strings suspended from a high ceiling, strategically located at the entrance of the Manama Souq in Bahrain’s (Bab-al Bahrain). The coin strings are 7 meters long and the whole piece weighs around2.5 tonnes in total, therefore careful installation was crucial to ensure safe completion as well as a safe display. 9 by the Ministry of The materials used in this project were brought in all the way from India (coins) and China (pearls). All materials were wisely selected to ensure durability. It was a largely secretive project so Harshad and his team worked on the installation on odd hours (9pm-4am) to maintain an element of surprise. According to Harshad, Meeting the deadline was the most challenging part of the project as hanging the coin strings so close to each other, at such a height, proved to be a time consuming and challenging process. This resulted in Harshad, his wife and a team of 35 workers, spending long hours manually hanging the coin strings one by one then adding a pearl to the end of each string.
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