The Kingdom of Bahrain’s retail sector largely remain unaffected during the financial crisis and year 2011 is seen as a year of consolidation and recovery, a leading businessman and member of one of the well respected family businesses in Bahrain said on Wednesday.
Al Hawaj, who is also Chairman of the retail sector committee at the BCCI, said the impact financial crisis was very minimal on the retail sector in Bahrain as most of the businesses managed to survive the spate of the liquidity crunch.
Jawad Y Al Hawaj, member of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) board and head of retail committee, on the sidelines of the two-day family businesses event titled the ‘Family Business Retreat’, said the rapidly changing global business climate necessitates family businesses to adopt scientific approach.
Given business model of family or SMEs, he said, majority of the businesses showed resilience to the negative market forces.
“I would say the year 2011 wills consolidation, stability and coming back to the normal course of business,” Al Hawaj added.
The companies, he said, with more exposures to real estate were perhaps the most vulnerable to the financial meltdown but those with conservative culture of doing business were largely safe.
“Over 90 per cent of total businesses are family-run entities and majority of them are based on a very simple business model,
Al Hawaj, who was one of the participants of the family business conference attended by over 60 delegates from across the GCC, said the small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) were mostly categorized as family businesses in the Arab world.
“The issues like corporate governance, transparency, board and constitution need for family businesses are few but very important challenges for the family businesses. The forum like this family conference is always helpful but there should be conscious effort to follow-up of such meetings to make the best use of the innovative themes, ideas and approaches. Unfortunately on many occasions this are discussed and never come to the stage of implementation, this approach has to be dealt with properly,” he said.
Held under the patronage of the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Dr Hassan Abdulla Fakhro the Conference concluded yesterday with a positive note to keep the momentum up by hosting such events.
Organised by IIR Middle East, the opening ceremony was attended by representatives of family businesses in Bahrain, as well as local and regional financial and economic sectors’ officials.
President of the Bahrain Family Business Association Khalid Mohammed Kanoo thanked the organizers for bringing experts together who deliberated upon the important challenges being faced by the family businesses.