His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, today chaired this week’s cabinet meeting at the Gudaibiya Palace, during which a range of important issues were discussed relating to real estate development projects in the Kingdom and the status of Bahrain’s telecommunication services.
The cabinet congratulated His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and the people of Bahrain and all Arab and Islamic states on the occasion of the Islamic New Year.
The Cabinet went on to praise the electoral commissions for their efforts to make the process easy and straightforward for candidates to register to run in the upcoming municipal and parliamentary elections in all electoral districts.
Moving on to the issue of stalled real estate development projects in Bahrain, the Cabinet stressed the importance of developing fair and objective solutions for settlements to be filed that would not impact investors. The cabinet also discussed ways to establish specific mechanisms to prevent such issues in the real estate sector from occurring in the future.
The Cabinet then commended the efforts and organisation of "Invest in Bahrain", a forum and exhibition held under the patronage of His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, which promotes various initiatives and projects seeking to attract investments to the Kingdom to further benefit all Bahrain’s citizens. "Invest in Bahrain" was inaugurated on behalf of His Royal Highness the Prime Minister, by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, the Deputy Prime Minister.
During the meeting, the Cabinet also reviewed and adopted the following decisions:
1. The Cabinet approved a draft law on the settlement of distressed or stalled real estate development projects, which aims to fully address the issue while taking the necessary precautions to protect the interests of investors, both large and small.
2. The Cabinet discussed a draft resolution regarding regulations and permissions related to state-owned land and businesses. Key aspects of the draft resolution include the regulation of the current application and investment procedures, procedures to place land up for investment and ways to award contracts and procedures to deal with complaints. The draft resolution also ensures that the principles of integrity, transparency and competition are firmly part of all such regulations.
3. The Cabinet reviewed a memorandum on the development of telecommunication services in the Kingdom, submitted by the Minister of State for Communication. The memorandum notes that the remarkable progress of Bahrain’s telecommunications sector has placed it in a prominent status in the region and worldwide.
4. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince referred the draft law on issuing the Personal Data Protection Act to the Executive Committee for further study.
5. The Cabinet requested the Civil Services Bureau to re-examine the contents of the memorandum submitted by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning, specifically the remuneration of the Complaints Committee whom deals with land expropriated for the public benefit.
6. The Cabinet approved two draft laws, which were both drawn up following proposals made by the Representatives Council. The first draft law concerns amending Article (6) of Law No. 19 of 2006 on the organization of the Labor Market, and the second focuses on amending Article (5) of Law no. (57) of 2006 on the establishment of a work fund. The amendments will allow representation of Bahraini workers in each of the Governing Councils of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority and the Labour Fund, following the recent amendment to the Trade Unions Act promulgated by Legislative Decree No. 23 of 2002 that allows the presence of more than one union in each Governing Council.
7. The Cabinet referred the draft law, as amended by the Representatives Council, which concerns an amendment to Article 127 of Legislative Decree No. 54 of 2002 on the Rules of Procedure of the Representatives Council. The cabinet also submitted a memorandum of the government’s opinion along with it.