Bahrain merchants dissatisfied with BCCI’s performance: Yaqoob Al Awadhi

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

With a little over one-and-a-half months left for the elections at Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), an upcoming candidate is hogging the limelight with bright proposals and sharp criticisms.

He is a reformist, innovation enthusiast and most importantly a socially-committed entrepreneur. NGN International Group Chairman Yaqoob Al Awadhi, in an exclusive interaction with The Daily Tribune, said the points of his electoral programmes consist of investing the funds accumulated in the Chamber’s treasury to stimulate several sectors of the national economy, supporting SMEs, and implementing long-awaited projects such as investing in the Chamber’s old building.

“This is in addition to the establishment of a business accelerator for entrepreneurs with full funding from the Chamber, and financial support for national projects related to the commercial market, such as developing the old Manama Souq, amending the Chamber’s law to allow fair participation for SMEs, linking the obligatory subscription to the Chamber’s membership to obtaining services based on the principle (No fee, No service), and activating the Studies and Research Centre in the Chamber to be truly beneficial to the merchant.”

Mr Al Awadhi said the Chamber should also develop a strategy to keep pace with the government’s economic recovery plan and support large companies in the financial, industrial, tourism, logistic and other sectors.

“The Chamber must be assisting the Bahraini merchants working in traditional sectors such as transportation, retail, construction and others apart from encouraging entrepreneurs to invest in the technologies of Industry 4.0.

It should activate the role of the ICT sector in serving the rest of the sectors apart from supporting the national economy, activating the role of business councils in the Chamber, and circulating the benefits of trade agreements concluded by the Chamber itself.”

On the issue of Chamber not becoming really ‘inclusive’, Mr Al Awadhi said: “The Chamber’s board of directors has turned into an elite body, favoring only major merchants who have a large number of votes, for considerations related to the elections, and the merchant owner of SMEs no longer feels that the Chamber is of any use to him, although the new Chamber law obligates every merchant to pay a fee of at least 20 dinars annually that goes to the treasury of the Chamber in which the funds are accumulated without the board of directors being able to invest those funds in supporting traders and benefiting the national economy.

Therefore, if the Chamber cannot achieve a benefit for all merchants, its membership should not be mandatory, based on the principle. “The Bahrain Chamber of Industry and Commerce is a very old organization, dating back over 80 years., and has enormous potential at the level of the executive body, departments, and sections, and has a large liquidity ranging between BD15 and BD20 million.

Unfortunately, the Chamber’s role has declined a lot in recent years, and it has become unable to keep pace with the directions and plans of the government,” he pointed out. Mr Al Awadhi, who plans to run as an independent, said his more than three decades of experience working in the GCC and the Middle East region along with successful business ventures he currently runs substantiate his candidature.

He said no sectors are well represented in the Chamber. “All merchants in various sectors: construction, retail, banking, IT, e-commerce, food and beverage, home, and women’s projects, are all dissatisfied with the Chamber’s performance.

“The Chamber, for example, did not organise a single exhibition, or invite merchants to participate in one exhibition, and the few economic studies it issued were a collection of information from the media and other sources without any useful addition.

The Chamber’s weakness was evident during the Corona pandemic, when the esteemed government rushed to support SMEs so that they could survive and stay in the market. The Chamber did not take any initiative, not even picking up the phone and calling one merchant to ask him about his conditions!”