Royal support saves food truck owners

TDT | Manama

Around 50 Bahraini food truck owners have received timely support, as His Majesty the King’s Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs representative, National Security Advisor and Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF) Board of Trustees chairman His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, stepped in to halt a municipal decision to remove their trucks from their location in the Southern Governorate.

HH Shaikh Nasser, who is also the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports (SCYS) chairman, on Monday ordered to support and ease obstacles to youth commercial activity, especially mobile food trucks, shortly after a group of the owners pleaded to HH Shaikh Nasser through a video posted on Instagram, stating that they were asked by the authorities to evict their location near Al Estiqlal Highway.

HH Shaikh Nasser called for a meeting between the related authorities to organise and support youth commercial businesses and to develop frameworks, systems, and infrastructure to invigorate the sector.

The meeting will be held at the SCYS headquarters and will be attended by representatives of the food truck owners, as well as representatives of several authorities, which include the Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry, the Industry, Commerce and Tourism Ministry, the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry, and the Southern Governorate Police Directorate.

HH Shaikh Nasser also instructed those concerned to submit a report on the solutions aimed at galvanising the sector, preserving gains, supporting the interests and initiatives of the youth, and protecting their projects.

On the same day on Monday, shortly before HH Shaikh Nasser’s instructions were issued, a group of Bahraini food truck owners appealed in a video, saying: “We are pleading to HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa to stand with us. We are Bahraini youth. We have families to support. We are unemployed and some of us are retirees. Around 40 to 50 trucks are here.

We depend on these trucks to make a living.” The group, which included Bahraini men and women, also said in the video while addressing HH Shaikh Nasser: “We are pleading for your support. The Southern Municipality and Southern Governorate informed us that they will remove our trucks on July 4. “At first, they said we should back up from the road by a distance of 20 metres, and we did that.

This land belongs to the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry. We are standing on the property of the government and we have Commercial Registrations. We are serving our homeland and represent it in an honourable way by creating a Bahraini brand. “We need your support.

We are providing for our children and families, especially during the current crisis caused by the coronavirus. Where can we go? Wherever we go we are evicted, despite that we are legal and abiding by the law. We need you to stand with us.” Several food trucks have chosen a side road, which is parallel to Al Estiqlal Highway and near Al Estiqlal Walkway, in the northern parts of Riffa (Buhair), to position their trucks and sell different meals and snacks.

Food tucks have become popular in Bahrain in recent years. This encouraged the authorities to introduce new rules and regulations to organise their activities. Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani issued a ministerial resolution in 2017 to regulate the work of mobile restaurants and food trucks.

Some of the main points mentioned in the resolution included that the owners of food trucks shall be Bahraini, permits shall be obtained from the Health Ministry and the concerned municipalities, and to not hinder the flow of traffic.