BCCI doing injustice to SMEs, says a candidate

Manama : A Bahraini businessman has accused BCCI of failing to provide its members with adequate financial or legal support despite charging hefty fees in the form of membership, which is mandatory now. 

Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, according to businessman Yousef Mashal, has failed to support SMEs after making membership mandatory for hundreds of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and micro enterprises in the Kingdom. 

The members, Mashal accused, are yet to find any value for the fee they have paid.  

“SMEs should be getting much more support from BCCI,” Yousef Mashal, who is running for the upcoming BCCI elections, told DT News.

“The current scenario occurs despite the chamber enjoying strong liquidity in the form of bank deposits exceeding 20 million dinars and an annual income of at least 500 thousand dinars.” 

Mashal said: “These are money from government assistance and from the members, which also makes it mandatory for the chamber to stand with its members, especially the micro and small institutions, in times of adversities.” 

“SMEs need support, both material and practical, to overcome the issues that limit their growth. It is also important for the Chamber to justify the fees and taxes they are collecting by offering proper service.” 

The Chamber, he said, has several committees, whose sole objective is serving the micro and small enterprises, which unfortunately is not happening properly, “especially for defaulted members.”

Speaking about the upcoming election and his candidacy, Mashal confirmed that he would form committees, which would work effectively to help SMEs financially and non-financially. 

“The committees, I intend to form will focus on providing SMEs financial, legal and training programmes.” 

The legal committees, according to him, will employ volunteer lawyers to help SMEs with legal advice and to represent them in courts. 

The assistance of finance and banking specialists will be utilised to form a committee to conduct feasibility studies as well as analysis for SMEs. Training to deal with tax system will also be provided. 

“I will also work on establishing a committee with marketing and commercial information specialists to provide advice on export methodologies, external marketing and financial support for micro and small enterprises,” he told DT News.