RIYADH, 6 December 2005 — A special court will be set up in the near future under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice for the settlement of commercial disputes.
This was announced by Deputy Minister of Commerce for Technical Affairs Fawaz Al-Alamy, who said a member of the Court of Grievances was included in the negotiating team headed by him.
Al-Alamy was responding to a question from the audience on the second day of the Riyadh Economic Forum which was holding a special session on the readiness of the private sector to join the WTO. The questioner was expressing the apprehension of the private sector that many Saudi firms could be taken to court by foreign companies, since disputes are settled among Saudis with a handshake in the absence of an institutional mechanism.
It was also disclosed that a group of Saudi businesswomen was planning to launch a women’s bank to fund projects targeting their needs. Asked how they stand in relation to WTO regulations, Muhammed Al-Jasser, deputy governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), replied that the regulations are not gender-specific and apply equally to both the groups.
He said, in reply to a question from Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Zamil, chairman of the Al Zamil Group of Companies, that there was no bar on Saudi businessmen in their attempt to pool their resources to set up a second commercial bank. Al-Jasser said the Bank Albilad has already operating as a 100 percent Saudi bank. The decision to issue a license is taken only by the Council of Ministers, which then instructs SAMA to implement its decision.
The session brought to the fore various concerns of Saudi businessmen, some of whom felt that lack of awareness of the WTO regulations had left them groping in the dark. However, from the trend of the discussions it was clear that there was a communication gap between the government and the business community on WTO regulations.
As Al-Alamy and subsequently Hussein Al-Athel, secretary general of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, explained to newsmen, the Ministry of Commerce has placed on its website (www.commerce.gov.sa) full details of exemptions and commitments that the Kingdom has got from, and given to, the WTO. The ministry also brought out booklets on the WTO and what it means for Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, women participants at the forum called on government agencies to pass stringent laws to force public and private sector organizations to provide employment to women graduates and to ensure their full integration into the work force. The participants also called for cutting reliance on foreign workers to provide more job opportunities for Saudis.
The call was made by the female participants on the second day of the Riyadh Economic Forum, which was holding a special session here last night on the contributions of women in the national economy. The session was co-chaired by a prominent Saudi woman Dr. Noura Al-Mubarak and Vice Chairman of Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saad ibn Ibrahim Al-Mojel.