More than 100 businessmen demonstrated outside the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) in Sanabis.

They were protesting against measures including a tax on foreign workers, introduced by the government to create more jobs for Bahrainis and support start-up firms.

The group gathered just down the road from the Pearl Roundabout, where anti-government protesters are demanding more jobs and better salaries for Bahrainis, among other things.

They were outside the BCCI to demand the resignation of its board, accusing the body of being an elitist club that hasn't done enough to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) - particularly those whose profits have been hit by the ongoing unrest.

They also protested against Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) fees - such as the tax on foreign workers designed to make Bahrainis more employable and which is used to support Bahraini entrepreneurs.

Efforts to tackle free visa workers - people who buy visas on the black market and then work illegally for whoever pays them - and the scrapping of the sponsorship system, which allows foreign workers to switch jobs without their existing employer's consent, also top their list of demands.

The protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations staged by the group over recent years.

'We are fed up with the BCCI's performance and request the resignation of the chamber's board of directors,' group spokesman and Lion Construction Establishment general manager Hisham Mattar told our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News (GDN).

'We gave (BCCI chairman) Dr Essam Fakhro a letter with our requests and we sat with him during Ramadan, but still they did nothing for us.

'Today we are demanding 'down, down Chamber of Commerce and Industry' and requesting the board's resignation.'

Mattar said although several BCCI officials came out of their offices to listen to the complaints yesterday, urgent action was needed to protect small businesses.

'My business is an example,' he said. 'I have the new financial report and it is going backwards, especially because of the free visas,' said Mattar.

He said the BCCI's decision to form a committee to represent the private sector in a national dialogue - being spearheaded by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander, should involve all chamber members, not only an exclusive group of business leaders.

'The BCCI makes its own gang,' he claimed.

'We object to it. It should be for the general assembly to select representatives. We are suffering, we are disappointed and we have no trust in the current board.

'We have had enough in talking and meeting, we want action.'

The group of businessmen plan to stage another protest outside the BCCI on Thursday from 9am.

'We will be coming back with hundreds of business owners, the Contractors' Association, the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions and others,' said Mattar.

BCCI officials were unavailable for comment yesterday.-TradeArabia News Service