Bahrain's Labour & Social Affairs Minister Majeed al-Alawi on 10 February issued a plea to the private sector to help in creating jobs for Bahrainis. The call came in a statement detailing his plans to increase the participation of nationals in the labour market, while accepting the need for foreigners in some sectors. 'The ministry has undertaken a thorough study on foreign workers in various industrial and production fields in the country,' he said. 'It was realised that certain areas could be 100 per cent Bahrainised, while Bahrainisation could be less in other areas due to technical and professional issues.' From 2005, work permits would not be issued or renewed unless there were insufficient numbers of qualified Bahrainis to do the job in question, Al-Alawi announced. He said that the government and the private sector needed to work together to tackle unemployment. Young unemployed Bahrainis have staged several protests outside Al-Alawi's ministry in recent weeks to protest at the lack of job opportunities.