His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Labor Fund “Tamkeen”, confirmed that the royal directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the King of the country, His Majesty, may God protect and preserve him, and government decisions headed by His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister, may God protect him, and the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander, First Deputy Prime Minister, may God protect him, come to provide support to small and micro enterprises out of faith in their role in promoting the economic growth of the Kingdom of Bahrain in light of the exceptional circumstances the world is witnessing of the pandemic.
His Excellency clarified during his chairmanship of the Tamkeen Board of Directors meeting held on Monday, that the various support initiatives & endeavors come in light of the outstanding challenges facing the world in general.
Said initiatives aim at finding opportunities that contribute to providing optimal supportive solutions during these exceptional circumstances, while also contributing in reducing the economic consequences of the pandemic on the most affected sectors, as the Kingdom made clear efforts to provide qualitative support by providing financial grants to support private sector institutions in their operating costs in a manner that ensures their continuity in the face of various challenges.
During its meeting, the council discussed the most important steps that Tamkeen has taken, and work was done to draw the most important features of the business scenarios for the coming period, and focus on the sustainability of the support goals while achieving the strategic goals of Tamkeen.
For his part, Dr. Ebrahim Janahi, Chief Executive of “Tamkeen” reviewed during the meeting the support provided during the first phase of the Business Continuity Support Program which was launched in implementation of the royal directives of His Majesty the King, may God protect him, and following to the government’s announcement of the financial and economic stimulus package within which is the re-orientation of support provided by Tamkeen programs.
The first phase of the program included support for more than 15,600 small and micro enterprises, while the second phase focused on continuing support for the institutions most affected by the pandemic, to enhance its efforts to continue in the market, in addition to doubling the support for these institutions while contributing to promoting the achievement of these goals on the face optimum.
In the second phase, support was focused and extended for an additional three months, as it contributed to serving up to 1914 beauty salons, 393 restaurants and cafes, 346 travel and tourism offices, 205 clubs and gyms, and finally 139 institutes and training institutions.
