DAMMAM: Despite several reforms intended to make it easier for women business owners in Saudi Arabia, many challenges remain. On Monday about 50 businesswomen gathered at the Asharqia Chamber in Dammam to discuss their hopes for the future and their present disappointments.

Unlike many parts of the Kingdom, Eastern Province businesswomen have at least one option unavailable elsewhere. “I wanted to open an office in Saudi Arabia but found that there were too many obstacles,” said Mai Al-Kasabi, a partner in The Travelers Travel Agency. “So I canceled that plan and opened in Bahrain.”

Some of these challenges, she explained, are procedural. “We needed visas (to hire workers), several permits, and my family had to support it,” she said. “In Bahrain, we opened our company in two hours. I couldn’t believe it.”

There was great disparity between the participants’ experiences — some saying they were able to get the commercial registration papers for their businesses in half an hour; for others it took as long as 14 months.

“One person’s understanding and explanation of what you should do is different from the next,” said Nehal Al-Omari, another Saudi businesswoman whose gift-wrapping business, Papermoon, is based in Bahrain. “We need one procedure for everybody.”

One of the women’s recommendations to eliminate such difficulties would be the creation of a “one-stop-shop” for businesswomen. “We need one place that has everything you need to open a business in Saudi Arabia — where there’s an auditor, a legal adviser, an office for the permits, so that you don’t have to keep running around, wasting your time,” Al-Omari said.

Many women also have difficulty completing business procedures, which they cannot do themselves. “When people ask me, ‘how do you hire somebody?’ I tell them, I don’t know — my husband did it,” said Al-Omari. “You need to have a male figure involved in your business ... I can’t do these things myself.”

There are also cultural obstacles that businesswomen face in the Kingdom. “There are challenges that come with Saudi society. You can’t have meetings with men,” she said. “I worked from home and didn’t have an office, so where are you going to have a meeting: in a restaurant?”

In Bahrain, she is able to do so — in hijab and never unescorted. “I can meet with Europeans, with Americans or Bahrainis,” she said. “There isn’t a problem.”

The cultural obstacles are especially pronounced when hiring employees. “My store is a gift-wrapping store,” said the founder of Papermoon, which has several branches in the Kingdom. “Find me a Saudi who will agree to wrap gifts.”

She also cannot hire Saudi women to work in her public stores. This makes meeting the Saudization quota difficult let alone training her Saudi employees.

“I want to be able to make a difference — to benefit myself and benefit others,” she said. “Saudis haven’t had many educational or training opportunities. Have you ever heard of a Saudi who worked a summer job? I have no way of training Saudis.”

Despite all of these challenges, they agreed that there has never been a more opportune time for businesswomen. “We’ve got support from the king, support from the government, support from the Chamber of Commerce,” said Al-Kasabi. “These things weren’t there five years ago.”

She said that women had to be responsible. “With all these things, we know that if there is any fault, it is within us,” she said. “We must make things easier, so that our sons and daughters don’t have to go through what we did.”