Commercial cover-up key topic at Jeddah forum

The Jeddah Commercial Forum (JCF) being held from today will focus on issues faced by the domestic business sector such as commercial cover-up.
More than 500 experts including Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman, assistant minister for petroleum affairs of the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, will take part in the forum.
The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) is organizing the event in association with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Apart from finding solutions to several problems, the forum will also strive to familiarize traders and consumers about local and international commercial regulations.
Thirty experts will present 18 work papers at six sessions on Sunday and Monday.
JCCI Chairman Saleh Kamel, stressing the localized nature of the forum, said the forum stands out in its vision and directions from other forums because it deals with national commercial activities and aims to promote the Kingdom to be on par with advanced countries in terms of business performance, efficiency and legislation.
Kamel said the forum is complementary to the Jeddah Economic Forum (JEF), which has won international acclaim in organizing global events in the past years.
“JCF will discuss only topics related to the commercial sector in the country, the challenges that the Kingdom’s business community faces and what laws should be in place to improve the investment environment in the country and the private businessmen’s participation with the public sector,” Kamel said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency.
The JEF’s goal is to create a strong bond between the Kingdom’s economy with global economy, he said.
Neshwa Taher, chairperson of the event’s organizing committee, said the forum would discuss in its first session the issue of commercial cover-up and ways to end such acttivities in the business sector.
Economists such as Ayman Fadel, rector of the College of Economy and Management at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, and Adbullah Mahfouz, member of JCCI, will present papers on the topic.
Taher said the second session would discuss policies for Saudization and the void it would create in the market for skilled workers.
The third session would be on mediation as an alternate solution to the litigation.
Th fourth session is set apart to discuss competitiveness of Saudi ports and freight logistics and the fifth would deal with the issues related to fair commercial competition in the Kingdom and the Gulf region.
The forum will also discuss the Kingdom’s efforts to end the issue of dumping in the petrochemical sector, she said.