The
JCCI is managed by its 21-member board of directors, which represents the city’s different industries and sectors. The board’s chairman, Sheikh Saleh Kamel, and the board are diligent in promoting their city’s, and the country’s, economic growth and in helping Jeddah’s businesses expand and develop.
“The chamber is working in a constant quest to develop its services in the economic fields and activities of its members in order to meet their future expectations,” Mr Kamel says on the group’s website. “The chamber’s concerns for its members’ interests are based on an advanced vision that enables it to provide added value services.”
The group carries out its mission in many different ways, with one of the most prominent being the Jeddah Economic Forum. The forum is organised by the Jeddah Marketing Board, a department of the chamber, in association with Duke Corporation Education as an academic partner. The event has become the region’s preeminent think tank for economic and social issues.
Held every winter since 1999, the forum has hosted many famous and respected politicians, businesspeople and academics. Participants have included former US presidents Bill Clinton and George H W Bush; Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group Ltd; and Roger B Porter, IBM Professor at the John F Kennedy School of Government. This year’s forum will be held from March 19 to 22.
In addition to the marketing board, the JCCI has various other units, including the Business and Committees Sector. That unit is tasked with working to reduce government red tape, promoting greater use of training and educational efforts and helping set priorities based on member surveys, among other things.
Another unit is the Business Sectors Support Division, which encourages the use of best practices, disseminates relevant information and in other ways provides the kind of skilled support that can best help the trade, industrial, professional, real estate, service, environment and heath sectors.
The JCCI’s IT and Information Sector has the vital mission of spurring the adoption and use of the latest information technology, with the goal of making the city’s businesses as efficient and well connected as possible and making Jeddah the favoured destination for businesses coming to Saudi Arabia.
The IT Sector is also involved in a project to modernise the JCCI’s headquarters, installing intelligent technology and making it a smart building. The goal is to cut the use of power and reduce expenses, increase the reliability of its systems and become a model for the city’s businesses in the application of these technologies.
The chamber also supports various specialised centres with different goals. The Khadija Bint Khowailid Business Women Centre is intended to encourage and support the development of women in the national economy, while the Jeddah Social Responsibility Centre promotes the concept of social responsibility in business in accordance with international standards.
The Jeddah Business Development Centre was set up to be the main supporting and motivating organisation for small businesses in the city. Among its goals are encouraging Saudi youth to start businesses, determine promising areas for successful business start-ups and generally giving much-needed support and backing to entrepreneurs looking to contribute to the city’s economic development.
0 COMMENTS