In 2010, the Sesame Workshop and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (ABEGS), which recognized "the deep love for the program" felt throughout the Arab world, started talks about relaunching "Iftah Ya Simsim". Pre-production research and preparation, like the process it took to bring the American version and the original Arab co-production, took two years. The ABEGS and the Sesame Workshop signed an agreement to bring it back to Arab television, with content suitable for a new generation of children. The show was the first educational initiative sponsored by the Mubadala Development Company, the investment vehicle of the Abu Dhabi government. The initiative sought to relaunch the old series "with a new vision and content suitable for children of today". Abdel-Mohsen Al Bannai, CEO of the joint production program for GCC-JPPI and who produced other co-productions in the region during the 1980s, considered "Iftah Ya Simsim" as more than a TV show, but as an educational initiative. The production company Bidaya Media was chosen to produce the show; in 2013, the company was housed at Twofour54, the United Arab Emirates version of public television. The show was supported by organizations all over the world; Feras Al-Maddah, "Iftah Ya Simsim's" representative at the GCC, stated, "It is a public/private sector partnership and we will need the support of all to extend the communication channels and continue producing more educational products".