Small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) represent 99 per cent of the private sector in Bahrain, Economic Development Board chief executive and Tamkeen chairman Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa said at the Entrepreneurship Forum opening session.

He said entrepreneurship and the pivotal role it plays in the development of a strong socio-economic model creates both innovative business opportunities as well as new job opportunities within the private sector.

'SMEs are also the largest contributors to socio-economic development through the creation of job opportunities, creation of supply and demand and playing part of the value chain of large organisation and the recycling of resources within the economy,' he said.

The theme of the forum was Creating Social, Economic, Cultural, and Personal Value with contributions by prominent academics, renowned researchers, policy-makers, chief executives and consultants of leading, public and private institutions from Bahrain and abroad.

'It is unfeasible to focus on resources in the development of any single sector on which the ecsonomy revolves in any given state,' he said.

'We need to diversify economic resources that are innovative and attractive to all economic stakeholders,' he added.

'Diversification can be achieved through the realisation that the culture of entrepreneurship is extended to small-and-medium enterprises.

'Entrepreneurship is a critical factor in the development agenda and an integral requirement that is highly effective and crucial to the continued evolution and diversification of the private sector,' he said.

He said the state's role includes the establishment of a complete infrastructure network that is capable of embracing existing and newly-formed enterprises, streamlining its business, promoting the values of initiative, creativity, and innovation to younger generations; regulation and monitoring to allow competition and eliminate monopolies to open new areas for growth, and that quality standards are in place, and setting forth policies and regulations that further boost business potential.

'Also central to the role of the state is the provision of direct support to individuals and enterprises in key economic components such as the establishment of business incubators and the provision of smart financing schemes, which may serve to sustain businesses in the long term,' he added.

'These roles represent a collective nurturing environment for entrepreneurship, whilst any other supporting actions would embrace the various aspects of a business in a comprehensive process.

'Entrepreneurship today does not only mean the ability to create new markets, it is an environment driven by individuals of various segments to fulfil ambitions representing a creative force,' he said.

'No economy can survive without an educational system capable of providing the marketplace with high-qualified and well-trained individuals,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service