Now CR can be done in 93 sec

Manama : Issuance of Commercial Registrations (CR) will now be much faster thanks to the launch of a new CR portal.

‘Sijilat’, a new commercial registration portal was introduced on the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and  Industry (BCCI) premises in Sanabis yesterday. Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa launched the system in the presence of Deputy Premier Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, government officials and invited guests. The project is spearheaded by Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism in collaboration with Information and E-government Authority. 

Speaking during a press conference following the launch, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Zayed R. Al Zayani said that the process of obtaining a CR will be easier and faster. “Today is the result of two-and-a-half years of hard work. The Information and e-government authority has been instrumental in developing the system with us. The system was developed to address the issue of delays in issuing commercial registration and establishment of companies,” he said.

“Today we demonstrated that we are able to issue a CR in just 93 seconds, that was a proud moment for us. The system is undergoing continuous upgrading and we have new features coming onboard. It is live and operational 24/7, its accessible from anywhere,” Al Zayani elaborated. “It works simultaneously, when you have submitted your application it gets pushed out to all government agencies required in the registration process.”

 “The whole idea is to make the experience more efficient and more pleasant. In order to reach the activation of final version of this system, we have changed the commercial and the company law. We have had the cooperation of the Ministries and the agencies to shortcut the registration requirements,” the Minister said. 

Information and E-government Authority, Adviser to CEO Feras Jaffer Ahmed said, “The project was related to the commercial registration as well as the licences associated with obtaining CRs. The whole system is not simply an IT system. It is more of a business system; in developing it we had to look at the process across the government and the number of activities involved in obtaining the CR.”

“This portal is to streamline and simplify the process of getting the CR in Bahrain to make it more competitive and to attract more foreign direct investments. It was a major re-engineering project. We started with the launch in May last year on a trial basis. The system is now very stable after a year of trial operations. April was a peak month with 3,000 CRs registered.” he said. 

“The project was implemented with the help of a Korean company. We chose it because Korea is one of the leaders when it comes to E-government. They had the business know-how, as well as the technical knowledge.” Ahmed added.