JEDDAH, 3 April 2006 — The only woman on the first list of candidates running for five sector committees at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry won a seat on the Real Estate Committee.
Howaida Osta, 24, is the youngest candidate running in these committee elections. She successfully competed with 21 other nominees for the Real Estate Committee to be one of the fifteen members of the committee.
Almost 300 members of the chamber, including three businesswomen, nominated themselves in the elections for the 38 sector committees of fifteen members each.
Saturday was the first day of voting for five of the 38 committees. The two other women, Fatima Madani for the Advertising Committee and Khadija Bokhari for the Environmental Committee, are also running for seats. The other four committees voted on Saturday are Trade, Lawyers, Private Schools and Contractors. The newly elected members for the Lawyers Committee is not finalized yet because five of the 29 nominees received equal number of votes so the chamber’s council have to decide on who to approve.
This is the first time that such elections for the chamber’s committees have been introduced. The board of directors of the JCCI wanted to allow greater participation and involvement of all groups in developing the sectors. The committees represent all sectors in which the chamber is active. JCCI members can nominate themselves for up to three committees related to their business. Mohammed Al-Sharif, secretary general of the JCCI, said the purpose of these elections is to pump new blood and bring in new ideas to the committees in order to develop the related sectors. The part about pumping new blood seem to have succeeded; several young businessmen have managed to win seats in the first round of committee elections. Businessman Maher Bundagji, 30, won a seat on the Contractors Committee as its youngest member. Bundagji was also the youngest candidate running during the JCCI board of director’s election held in November, which resulted in the first two businesswomen to win seats on a chamber board.
