Accord signed to run Labour Fund project
15 Nov 2007MANAMA: The Labour Fund yesterday signed a four-year BD560,000 contract with a leading international consultancy to run the day-to-day operations of its Enterprise Development Support (EDS) project.
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh International, (TAGCO) a firm with 60 offices across the Middle East and North Africa, was selected from six respondents to take on the work.
"The decision to outsource the EDS programme stemmed from the tremendous positive response generated from the small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)," said Labour Fund acting chief executive Abdulellah Al Qassimi.
"Since we did not want to create any red tape barriers or delays, we felt the best way forward would be to select an outside agency to manage the project under the Labour Fund's supervision."
Under the deal TAGCO, as the EDS Agency (EDSA), will streamline the programme so that applicants from the private sector, especially SMEs will get a swift and effective response to their applications.
About 1,000 beneficiary companies are expected to reap the gains of the project over this four-year period. EDS is already processing 229 requests and has a budget of BD5 million.
"Enterprise Development is priority number one at TAGCO and we are dedicated to growing Bahraini jobs consistent with Bahraini values," TAGCO chairman Talal Abu Ghazaleh said. "The partnership between TAGCO and the fund will prove how a good idea wedded to work and commitment can pay off," he added.
"It's exactly this kind of partnership model that will help keep Bahrain the headquarters of innovation as we embrace exciting new businesses and face the challenge of outsourcing and offshoring.
"It's not hard to understand that the small and medium enterprises are going to be the next big thing. It holds great promise for economic prosperity, job creation, higher wages, a better standard of living, longer and healthier lives, and greater security."
He said his company has launched a toolkit for SMEs in Jordan in conjunction with the UN Development Programme which covered everything a company needed to know from start up to licensing marketing and finance.
He now planned to develop a similar toolkit for Bahrain which his company would offer free to over 40,000 SMEs.
The EDS project is designed to help SMEs overcome challenges, improve productivity and improve employment prospects for Bahranis, said Labour Fund acting vice-president, private sector support Mohammed Ali Bucheery.
It aims to help companies make the transition from using cheap labour to using machinery and technology to increase production capacity to enrich low-level jobs and make them more attractive to nationals. It would help in product, marketing and export development. The fund is working on developing venture capital opportunities with outside investors to support the SME sector.
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