A national forum to be held early next month will discuss the challenges of productive families and their requirements including training in administration and marketing to make them competitive.

Makkah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah will inaugurate the Third National Productive Family Forum and Exhibition, 2014, under the theme ‘Made in Saudi Arabia’ in Jeddah on April 6.

More than 600 productive families will participate in the three-day forum and related workshops organized by the Corporate Responsibility Center, a subsidiary of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI).

JCCI Chairman Saleh Kamil said the forum’s objective was to drive deep the economic concept of activities of productive families and make it a significant contributor to the national economy besides offering them technical, marketing, financial and administrative training.

It also aimed to improve the quality of home-made products so that they comply with the regional and international standard specifications, Kamil said.

The forum will also strive to launch temporary direct sales windows at large shopping centers, commercial exhibitions and public gatherings such as hotels, women’s colleges and residential complexes in addition to encouraging e-marketing for their products.

Another goal of the forum is to make contracts of partnership with business exhibitions, retail businesses, importers and exporters in addition to obtaining individual and group licenses for productive families.

The academic events of the forum will be managed in collaboration with the Business and Technology University.

The first session of the forum will focus on evolving the best structural and organizational practices for the administration of the activities of productive families.

The second session will deal with the best financial, financing and investment practices for the administration of productive families.

A workshop under the theme ‘training and participation leads to market competitiveness’ will also be conducted, Kamil said.

The forum will also deal with the best practices for production, marketing and quality control in addition to running classes on specialized financial sessions, he said.