As a reflection to the five-year plan of the SMEs Development Board (SDB) and the government’s orientation in accordance with Bahrain Vision 2030 which aims to diversify sources of income and support the national economy by providing the necessary tools and services of value-added for the development of non-oil exports, the SMEs Online Registration System was launched by the Ministry of Industry Commerce & Tourism (MoICT) on April 2019 during the GEC, Bahrain 2019.
All those wishing to develop their SMEs and benefit from the above services and many additional support services and programs are invited to register for free on the SMEs Online Registration System.
The system aims to enable SMEs to benefit from the SDB’s initiatives and any other initiatives or support programs assigned to this sector as well as to enhance the growth and development of these enterprises in order to increase their contribution to the GDP and create new job opportunities for citizens, through the services provided by the system at this phase and the various new up-coming services in the next phase.
At the current phase, the system operates on MoICT’s website and allows enterprises to submit applications to be classified by size in accordance with Ministerial Resolution No. (229) of 2017 on the Classification of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in order to receive official classification certificates that enables them to benefit from initiatives or support programs assigned to SMEs including the 20% allocation for SMEs from the value of government procurements and tenders and the 10% preference granted to SMEs in the biddings of service facilities within government departments and in the government tenders as well in accordance to the Cabinet’s Resolutions No. (2416-06) of 2017 and No. (2516-04) of 2019, in addition to the support services of “Export Bahrain”. Also, the system has started establishing the first of its kind SMEs Database in Bahrain which will assist the SMEs support organizations to conduct studies for the development of the sector.
Apart from that, the ministry is working on developing the system to have its independent online presence, expand its scope of services and benefits and make it even easier to use after integrating it with the online systems of Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), Tender Board and the Commercial Registration Directorate (Sijilat). The services and benefits of the 2nd phase will include notifying SMEs about tenders, SMEs related programs, events and news and allowing SMEs to benefit from the other initiatives that will be launched gradually, according to the plan of the SME Development Board. In addition, the system will offer a comprehensive resource for the important information, resolutions, and guidelines relevant to the SME sector in the Kingdom.
