JEDDAH, 17 June 2006 — The Commerce and Industry Minister Dr. Hashim Yamani met with members of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) board of directors Thursday evening seeking resolution to the dispute revolving around JCCI Chairman Abdullah Al-Mouallemi.

After a meeting described as “cooperative, objective and respectful of each other”, the minister announced that an agreement has been reached over the administrative conflicts without elaborating.

However, sources informed Arab News that the agreement is to allow Al-Mouallemi to remain as chairman until the end of the summer. There are rumors that Saleh Al-Turki will become the next JCCI chairman.

The JCCI board of directors held their regular meeting early last week but the discussion soon took a negative turn when a majority of the members tried to bring to vote whether Al-Mouallemi should remain as chairman, an item that was not on the agenda.

According to inside sources, ten out of the fifteen members at the meeting tried to persuade Al-Mouallemi to step down due to excessive absenteeism due to undisclosed personal reasons. The members who want to replace Al-Mouallemi argued that after eight months as chairman he has not been able to meet his obligations and the board has been hindered in delivering the promises it made during the election campaign. Although his deputy Ziad Al-Bassam has been acting chairman during Al-Mouallemi’s frequent absences, he did not have the administrative authority.

He exercised his executive privilege earlier this past week to block the vote on ousting him. After some closed-door negotiations an agreement was made that Al-Mouallemi would resign from his post.

“We want to keep a sense of harmony and goodwill among us so that we can continue doing our job because he was elected as a board member and even after he steps down as chairman he will remain as board member. It is better that there are no hard feelings,” said the source close to the negotiations. But some of those wanting the chairman to resign immediately continued their media campaign against Al-Mouallemi pushing the ministry and before it the Jeddah Municipality to intervene.

The agreement reached Thursday with Minister Yamani is for Al-Mouallemi to assign one of his deputies, Al-Bassam or Mazen Batterjee, to take over the administrative affairs during his continued absences.

The significance of JCCI chairmanship this time around, besides being the chairman of the oldest and most prestigious chamber in the Kingdom, is that the JCCI chairman would become in over a year the next chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers, a very important and influential post.

This new board at the JCCI won in the most contested and competitive elections in the chamber’s history held in November. The election was unprecedented in the number of nominees and in having women run for the first time.

All twelve elected members were from Lejeddah Group, led by businessman Mohammed Jameel and including two women, Lama Al-Sulaiman and Nashwa Taher.