BCCI hails efforts to mitigate economic fallout

TDT Manama

Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) chairman Sameer Abdulla Nass paid tribute to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, hailing his sound directives to confront the coronavirus (COVID-19) fallout.

He praised the efforts of the government, chaired by His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and hailed the follow-up of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.

In a statement yesterday, Nass took pride in the royal directives to unify national efforts to face the pandemic repercussions, in order to preserve the health and safety of citizens and residents, in parallel with the continuation of the Kingdom’s programmes and its work to achieve sustainable development for the benefit of citizens, in addition to pumping liquidity into local markets and supporting the most affected economic sectors.

He hailed the Cabinet’s decision to pay 50 per cent of the salaries of insured Bahrainis in the most affected enterprises in the private sector for a period of three months, starting in July, from the Unemployment Insurance Fund.

“All of these initiatives will contribute to maintaining sustainable growth in general, and to achieving stability in the labour market for Bahraini small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, and thus reduce the impact of the economic consequences of the pandemic”, Nass said.

The BCCI chief lauded the government’s growing interest in supporting citizens’ social welfare, especially in light of the implications of the pandemic and its global spread, and the uneven impact on all local productive sectors.

Meanwhile, BCCI first vice-chairman and Social Insurance Organisation representative Khalid Najibi yesterday commended Decree-Law 21/2020, regarding pension funds in insurance and retirement laws and regulations, issued by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Najibi hailed the Cabinet’s endorsement of urgent reforms recommended by the General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI), which came during the virtual meeting chaired by HRH the Crown Prince. Najibi reinstated the Chamber’s support to the decree law on pension funds in insurance and retirement laws and regulations, and the urgent reforms which entail merging the public and private sectors pension funds; subjecting the annual increase of pensions to the availability of surplus of funds, dissociating pensions and salaries, and prohibiting combining pensions from any of the pension and insurance funds.

He affirmed that the reforms will contribute to enhancing the sustainability of pension funds, and ensure that financial obligations are met towards 95,000 citizens.Also yesterday, the BCCI’s technology committee announced it is organising a webinar themed “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence in your E-Commerce Business”, scheduled to be held tomorrow at 1pm.

Speaking at the webinar will be Infiniteware CEO Ameen Altajer. BCCI members and all those interested in the webinar must complete a registration form available on the following link: bahrainchamber.bh/en/ bcci-event-public/70416. The webinar will be conducted in English via Zoom.