All institutions in Bahrain should take the interests of more than 90 per cent of Bahrain's businesses into consideration before setting out policies and programmes, it was declared yesterday.

Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) small and medium enterprises (SME) committee chairman Khalaf Hujair said only about 10pc of Bahrain's economic activity is by small and medium businesses.

"Whether it is retail, construction or the hotel industry, most business are classified as SMEs," he said. "There is a lot of talk about Bahrain's businesses being revived but we need to impress upon everyone they have to take into account the SMEs first."

Mr Hujair was speaking before a meeting of SME committee members as well as those from the gold and pearl jewellery committee at the BCCI headquarters in Sanabis last night.

"We have seen there are a lot of problems SMEs are facing and these have to be sorted out.

"Most of these are related to the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) and its Bahrainisation levels."

He said the meeting will discuss, among other things, how to develop SMEs in Bahrain and ensure the sector is revived.

"Financial difficulties being faced by SMEs will also be discussed and we will speak about the challenges we have been facing for more than a year."

He said the meeting will be an opportunity to learn about the situation at SMEs and their needs.

"The committee is keen to follow up on all problems and concerns of SMEs and discuss various channels and means available to solve their problems."

He said one of the major solutions, along with government incentives, was for the SMEs to co-operate with one another. "This will have a positive impact on the activity of the sector and help efforts to support the national economy."

Gold and pearl jewellery committee chairman Mohammed Sajid Shaikh said the sector should have a clear understanding of the Bahrainisation levels. "On the one hand, we are told one thing and on paper, it is quite another. This leads to confusion."

He said in government computer systems, the pre-LMRA levels of Bahrainisation were still showing. "This leads to our commercial registration renewals being stopped since according to those figures, we have not met the Bahrainisation levels."

He reiterated the 15pc Bahrainisation levels for the gold sector were also unreasonable and should be scrapped. "We have been hearing promises for the last few years there is going to be a re-think but we have not seen anything on the ground.

"This should be implemented immediately since we cannot survive with these Bahrainisation levels."