JEDDAH, 4 July 2004 — The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry has elected an 18-member employees’ committee. Twenty-six candidates including three women were up for election.
It was a close contest, with candidates winning by a margin of between one and four votes. Two of the three women candidates were successful, one of them getting the highest number of votes cast.
Fatin Yousef Bundagji, director of the women’s empowerment and research unit of the Sayyida Khadija bint Khuwailid Center for Businesswomen at the chamber, got 66 votes, trailing Awad Al-Hibaily (62), Khalid Sawas (59), Yasser Al-Abadi (56), Samia Filemban (55), Mamdouh Al-Shamrani (53), Hani Khafaji (49), and Saeed Wakid and Mazen Kutbi with 48 votes each.
The top nine members will form the main committee, with a sub-committee made up by the other nine members.
“I was totally overwhelmed by the vote of confidence my colleagues gave me,” Bundagji said. “All those who contested are hardworking people,” she added.
“It is a very good development. The committee will represent the employees to the management and ensure their role in decision-making and policy creation. By helping to fulfill the needs of the employees, the committee hopes to fulfill the needs of the chamber,” she added.
Bundagji, who has an MA in English literature from King Abdul Aziz University, said the committee will meet in a matter of days to discuss what it is going to do. Before joining JCCI, she was the director of the Preparatory Center at the Fikr Institute at Dar Al-Hekma College.
