Bahrain’s labour fund Tamkeen has signed an MoU with its strategic partner Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) to take its e-procurement marketplace initiative to the next level.

Under the MoU, Tamkeen and Bapco will co-finance the cost of a feasibility study to verify the potential benefits of the e-marketplace for private sector suppliers and participating companies alike.

The study will also evaluate other potential e-procurement platforms to determine which one is the most suitable for Bahrain.

The MoU is part of the second phase of the e-procurement project.

The intention of the project is to enable more local companies, particularly small and medium enterprises, to gain a greater share of the purchases made by the kingdom’s larger companies including Bapco, Alba, Garmco, GPIC, Banagas, Gulf Air, Batelco, Asry and Bas.

The e-procurement market place will enable the larger companies to be acquainted with the goods and services offered by smaller companies featured in that marketplace.

A committee, led by Bapco, was formed from different stakeholders to manage the project. It established a unified set of requirements for an e-marketplace and electronic purchasing cards and recommended conducting a feasibility study which is being taken up in the second phase.

“This MoU with Bapco to co-finance a feasibility study will help us to collect valuable data on e-procurement in Bahrain and map our future strategies,” said Tamkeen chief executive Abdulela Al Qassimi.

He said Bapco’s support was vital because it represented the commitment of a corporate partner, which generates business for the private sector, to engage at every level of the community through the e-procurement process.”
Bapco’s acting chief executive Faisal Al-Mahroos said Bapco fully appreciated the SMEs’ role in the kingdom’s future development and prosperity.

He added that the project would see a complete modernising of the way business was conducted in Bahrain.
Several days earlier, in another development, Tamkeen struck a deal worth more than BD203,200 ($538,962) with Bahrain Training Institute (BTI) under which the latter will provide training for 80 Bahrainis at its Travel Academy. There will be job placements for successful trainees through the Association of Bahrain Travel & Tourism Agents (ABTTA).

The agreement was signed by Al Qassimi and Hamid Saleh, BTI director-general, in the presence of Sufyan Al Moayyed, ABTTA chairman.

Next phase of EDS
Meanwhile, Tamkeen has initiated the next phase of its Enterprise Development Scheme (EDS) which already serves 914 Bahraini enterprises. In this new phase it will reach out to another 1,000 new Bahraini companies.
A tender was announced and Tamkeen appointed KPMG Fakhro as the executing partner agency for the EDS programme’s second phase which begins in November this year and lasts four years. The contract was signed by Al Qassimi and KPMG Fakhro’s chairman, Jamal Fakhro.

The EDS enables beneficiaries to take advantage of such programmes as the co-financed Technical Assistance Programme, the Growth Assistance Programme, the Business Development Scheme and a recently-introduced Quality Management Scheme that facilitates quality certification of companies.

“The EDS programme works at many levels to maximise the potential and growth of Bahraini enterprises,” observed Al Qassimi.

He explained  that EDS provided guidance and co-financed support to Bahraini enterprises for projects to upgrade technical facilities, overhaul administrative processes after due consultation with experts, draw up blueprints for improved business, put in place certified quality processes and gain international exposure through participation in international events.