Under the theme “We Are All Producers” the first Saudi Forum for Productive Families will be inaugurated by Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah Region, at Laylaty Hall here on Oct.10. The two-day forum will be organized by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the collaboration of four ministries and a group of social experts and philanthropic activists. The announcement came during a press conference at JCCI Monday conducted by Olfat Qabbani, the organizer of the forum, and Dr. Mazen Batarji, deputy director at the JCCI. “We aim to enlarge the number of families producing industrial products and services,” Qabbani said in her welcome speech. She also said that the forum will focus on the role of the family in promoting the national economy and on providing families with the required training and marketing techniques. Qabbani, who is also head of the Jeddah Council for Community Responsibility, stressed that the Council along with its four strategic partners – the Ministries of Social Affairs; Commerce and Industry; Labor and Education – will try to create an organizational body to promote family business and crafts production with both governmental and private support. Batarji said that there will be five key issues discussed during the forum: organizational development, from dependence to independence, from the home to the world. financial spheres and cooperative bonds and alliances which support the family and private businesses. “We have a sort of hierarchy in supporting those families which are willing to be productive and engage in business,” Batarji added. The first phase starts with small loans from SR500 to SR5,000 to support individuals who are just starting out in doing business for themselves. The JCCI represented by the Jeddah Council of Community Responsibilities also offers more substantial financial support for families of medium-sized businesses. The Abdulatif Jamil Fund supports successful and long-term family businesses. “It is hoped that the forum will lead to the creation of a regulations panel and rules which will give more governmental and private support to family productions and businesses in addition to establishing a special site for marketing the items that families have produced,” Qabbani concluded.
