Tamkeen, Bahrain’s labour fund, is allocating BD1 million ($2.65 million) to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to be able to operate the latest technologies and improve productivity.

It plans to extend financial help of up to BD50,000 to each SME that will be listed under a finance scheme spanning between one and five years.

A Tamkeen spokeswoman confirmed the BD1 million information communications technology (ICT) finance scheme had been designed to help gain a competitive edge.

Bahrain IT company Kanoo Information Technology (KIT), among others, will help implement the plan, designed to transform SMEs and help them realise their true potential and become more productive.

KIT operations assistant general manager Ramgopal Menon said the scheme aimed at helping SMEs become ICT-compliant with the latest available technologies.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a workshop on Cisco Unified Communications and Collaboration Solutions at the Sheraton Bahrain Hotel.

"We invited representatives of Tamkeen and some of our customers to be part of the workshop so they can benefit from Cisco experts' presentations as well as get to know of the Tamkeen programme," said Menon.

The event was organised by KIT in partnership with Cisco to demonstrate how they addressed real business challenges.

Menon said outputs of several businesses suffered since they were not aware or sure of how to protect their data and how to go about setting up a safe and effective networking environment.

"With Tamkeen's initiative and our expertise, we will help SMEs realise their true potential and thus become more productive," he said.

Present at the event were KIT general manager Waleed Kanoo and other officials.

Tamkeen has launched a BD10 million fund for SMEs to help them cope with the effects of the global economic crisis and the recent unrest. The Enterprise Support Fund is to be distributed to 2,000 distressed SMEs that qualify for a grant.

Our sister newspaper the Gulf Daily News earlier reported that the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry allocated BD300,000 to SMEs to help the industry revive. – TradeArabia News Service