MANAMA: The new law of businesses and the introduction of the Shelf Companies, which is applied in a number of advanced countries, has made Bahrain as one of the first countries in the region to introduce such type of companies.
This came as Simplify Commercial Registration (CR) Procedures Committee, established on the decision of the Coordinating Committee Chaired by HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad AlKhalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, held its fifth committee meeting to discuss methods of simplifying and developing CR procedures.
The meeting was chaired by Head of Committee Mr. Mohammed Ali AlQaed, and attended by Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Undersecretary of Commerce Affairs Mr. Nader Khalil AlMoayyed, along with relevant working teams by the Economic Development Board, Informatics & eGovernment Authority, ministries as well as governmental entities concerned with commercial and industrial licenses.
AlQaed confirmed that the upcoming period requires dealing with the national economy is undergoing by measured paces and committee recommendations which aim to liberalise the economy, attract further investments to create job opportunities as well as advance other sectors.
AlQaed continued by praising the committee efforts which led to taking important strides in a record time – most prominently being the coordination of relevant government entities through the issuing of licenses in a range of initiatives. Some of the initiatives include the granting of all commercial activity provided that it complies with the requisite conditions while working on altering the internal executive procedures of these entities – given that they go in line with the new approved laws and function on the online Business Licensing Integrated System (BLIS) during the first quarter of 2016.
During the meeting, a number of accomplished initiatives were presented such as the coordination of reducing the number of entities which were decided upon within the commercial license applications with the aim of avoiding duplications, and successfully narrowing the number of approvals from previously being average of six to three approvals for each commercial license. The performance and reports of all the government licensed entities are currently being reviewed to further enhance operations and shorten the timeframe spent on issuing the licenses as well as restricting the conditions and necessary procedures on the entities of direct specialization.
AlQaed said that the Informatics and eGovernment Authority will develop BLIS, ensure its readiness in applying the updated procedures as well as its compatibility with the Executive Schedule and the new law intended to be issued by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism in January 2016. He also highlighted the continuation of work and coordination by the committee with other relevant government bodies so as to comply its internal procedures with this approach to achieve more developments throughout the upcoming period.
