Tamkeen invested a staggering BD98 million ($260.6m) of funding support over the past 12 months to help young Bahrainis secure their dream jobs, launch new enterprises and guide existing businesses to reach their full potential, writes Avinash Saxena.

This was revealed during a media conference yesterday where top officials, led by chief executive Maha Mofeez, shared key achievements of the previous year and also outlined the Labour Fund’s priorities for 2023.

“We operate as part of a comprehensive ecosystem that works to achieve national goals in alignment with the economic recovery priorities.

“Therefore, last year we worked on implementing a comprehensive organisation-wide transformation plan that included setting key performance indicators and designing new programmes while also restructuring the support under each programme.

“As part of the transformation, we also proactively identified high potential economic opportunities and focused on driving productivity in projects that carried greater economic impact.”

Tamkeen supported 4,100 enterprises of all sizes across various sectors through its programmes in 2022.

Qusay Alarayedh, chief growth officer at Tamkeen, outlined at the Press conference staged at the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce Al Majlis Hall, that as many as 57pc of businesses supported were new beneficiaries,

Also, about half (48 per cent) of the enterprises, were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are regarded as a vital part of the economy because they drive innovation, are often more nimble and agile than larger businesses which allows them to respond quickly to changes in the market.

In total, 71pc of companies benefited from schemes for training and employment of Bahrainis, he added.

Adopting a proactive approach to attract applications from high potential businesses, said Mr Alarayedh, led to an increase of 21pc in high value jobs in comparison to the year before.

This included supporting more than 10,000 job opportunities and over 8,400 training opportunities for Bahrainis to increase their participation in the labour market, recording an increase of 29pc in professional certification beneficiaries in comparison to the previous year.

Since our inception in 2006, Tamkeen has made it its mission to empower the private sector to drive economic growth in the kingdom by providing programmes and support for enterprises and individuals.

In line with the kingdom’s collective efforts and comprehensive vision towards creating a thriving business-friendly ecosystem with a highly skilled Bahraini workforce, Tamkeen has invested BD1bn in direct support and contributed to facilitating approximately BD700m in indirect support through partners in the banking sector to encourage and expand the funding opportunities available to the private sector and specifically SMEs.

These opportunities enable the private sector to strengthen and further develop Bahrain’s national economy, it proudly boasts.

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