The Minister said that the statement attributed to him by one of the local papers was ‘absolutely incorrect’.
The Minister accentuated the government inclination towards the future of the national carrier which is very clear and does not afford any interpretation as embodied in a bill of law which was referred to the legislative authority recently, stipulating the opening of additional credit in the public budget for the year 2012 to allocate an amount of BD664.3 million to beef up Gulf Air’s capital aimed at boosting the company’s capability to thrive and surmount the challenges it is currently facing.
The Minister asserted the Ministry of Finance’s total commitment with government policy and that its basic duty is to express it and to reflect its components, hence the Ministry continues to explain such trend and elaborate its essential themes to the legislative authority – i.e. the Shura Council and the House of Representatives – in coordination with Bahrain Mumtalakat Holdings Company.
The Minister said there are constant communications with the legislature regarding the future of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national carrier, and that a proposal was made by consultants appointed by Mumtalakat regarding proposed options to either retain the company’s structure and status, or to finally liquidate it, or to tentatively halt operations for a short while then resume operations after restructuring its workforce, or to delimit the company’s commercial routes and partially or entirely resize its aircraft fleet. The only mention of the company’s probable shutdown was in context of the said alternatives which were proposed by Mumtalakat-appointed consultants, which after being studied by the government concluded in passing a resolution to support Gulf Air’s continuation and to boost its capital in the aforesaid manner in recognition of the role of aviation sector in supporting our national economy and extending the necessary bridges with various countries of the world which reflects positively on numerous economic sectors in addition to direct or indirect provision of job opportunities for Bahraini citizens.
The Minister asserted that the diversity of viewpoints around issues and topics is indeed a healthy phenomenon and that what matters is ultimate concurrence on most optimum action and therefore interaction continues between both the executive and legislative authorities regarding the national carrier in order to reach most perfect formula in this regard in accordance with recognized democratic practice.