TAGI Announces an Increase in EDS Program Participants in Bahrain

The Fund?s officials say that productivity improvement of SMEs is a key indicator of the [EDS] success.

MANAMA ---April 27, 2008--- Talal Abu-Ghazaleh & Co. International (TAGI), the central agency to manage the day-to-day operations of the Enterprise Development Support (EDS) program, affiliate of the Labor Fund (LF) in Bahrain, announced the latest statistics for April 2008, as 456 enterprises ?in the sectors of services, industry and construction- have applied to benefit from the project?s support.

The Labor Fund has initiated the EDS program to assist and support SMEs in enhancing their productivity and enable them to develop and grow while providing high quality jobs to Bahrainis.

The Labor Fund has spent more than BD 2 million in value until April 2008 in support of SMEs projects; these have been distributed on various schemes such as Information Systems Support, Business Development, Business Development Support and Technical Assistance.

The EDS program is a co-finance project containing several activities whereby the Labor Fund finances a certain percentage of the SMEs requirements. The program gives small and medium businesses unprecedented access to new business methodologies, modernization and ways to improve specific areas of the business to increase productivity through training, equipment upgrades, consultancy studies and implementation.

It is worth noting that TAGI will handle the day-to-day activities of the program due to its recent appointment as Enterprise Development Support Agency (EDSA) to the LF. It will be receiving the applications, processing payment and conducting follow-up actions. It also organizes the program so that SME applicants from the private sector get swift and effective responses to their applications. About 1200 beneficiary companies are expected to reap the gains of the project over the four-year period.

The Labor Fund monitors the EDSA and receives periodic reports. The Fund?s officials say that productivity improvement of SMEs is a key indicator of the projects success.