BCCI needs an open door policy, says Al Ghad group

Manama : Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) needs to have an open door policy and a monthly Majlis to listen to the concerns and opinions of the business community, Al Ghad group which announced its intention to run for next month’s BCCI elections, said yesterday. 

The Al Ghad group has 11 candidates namely Hamed Fakro, Eman Nooruddin, Hassan Kaiksow, Hatim Dadabai, Abdulrahman Almoayad, Mohammed Alkooheji, Yaqoob Alawadhi, Mohammed Shirazi,Ali Hasan Lari, Mohammed Alaali, and Omar AlKhan. The group hosted an event yesterday to convey its strategy and to interact with the business community. 

“Having an open door policy is important, in recent years it has not been easy for the community to get hold of the BCCI board members, calls are not returned and emails are not responded to. I would like the chamber’s door to be always open,” said Hamed Fakro.He said that attracting FDI will also be a priority. “We want to help Bahrain achieve a strong service-oriented infrastructure to transition from an oil based economy to a service exporting country,” he said. 

The group announced its set goals in a press release yesterday. They are: Constant research and statistics for healthy policies; Reduction of fees for businesses; Promoting a sustainable economy by supporting SMEs and entrepreneurship; and Transparency for Bahrain.

 Improving the impact that SME has on the economy must be a priority for the BCCI in the next four years, said Dr. Abdulhasan Al-Dairi, the Chairman of Bahrain SMEs Society, who was a guest speaker at the event. 

“Awareness about entrepreneurship is now much better than it was 20 years ago. Two decades ago even the educated did not know what entrepreneurship means. Now everyone knows, infact i would say we have an SME culture, but what we need to achieve next is for the SMEs to make a stronger impact on the national economy,” he said.