The Cabinet also extended the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) levy till the year end in line with the Government’s initiative to support the business sector.
HRH the Prime Minister praised security departments in discovering a large cache of explosives stored for the purpose of using them for carrying out acts of terrorism, which divulges the criminal thinking of the culprits aimed at a dangerous escalation of their methodology and techniques for inflicting loss of lives and destruction of property.
HRH the Prime Minister reiterated the government’s constant support to the security departments in order to carry out their role in preserving law and order and ensuring the country’s stability and combating terrorism and terrorists.
The Cabinet discussed in details the overall economic and commercial situation in the Kingdom and pledged support to the economic, merchant and industrial sectors and reviewed growth indices and appraised them. For this purpose, as part of HRH the Prime Minister’s keenness on supporting the commercial sector and preparing suitable conditions aimed at surmounting challenges imposed by local and international economic developments, and in response to demands from merchants and businesspeople, the Cabinet resolved to continue the freeze on LMRA fees until the end of the current year (2012).
The Cabinet tasked the Ministerial Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, in order to cooperate and to coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Labor, the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) in studying alternative options to achieve an equilibrium between the LMRA’s basic philosophy and its feasibility and the interest of commercial sector and businessmen and the training of Bahraini manpower, provided that the outcome of the study be submitted at most by next November 2012.
The Cabinet also discussed the construction of a modern economic industrial city in order to achieve a balance and sustainability of development with topnotch world-class infrastructures in order to meet the requirements of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s economy over the next three decades.
The Cabinet also reviewed the main objectives of the proposed economic city, its components, and proposed site as per the memorandum submitted for this purpose from the Minister of Industry and Commerce. The Cabinet tasked the Ministerial Committee for Services and Infrastructures to study in detail all aspects with the competent and relevant bodies and expertise consultancy firms.
The cabinet also explored a new bill of law for specifications and measurements in order to replace the current Law of Specifications and Measurements issued by Decree by Law No.: (16) for the year 1985 commensurate with developments and transformations and in harmony with the economic, investment, technological and legislative environments as well as international conventions and in order to modify legal concepts which do not match with modern-day advancement in the aforesaid environments, hence, the Cabinet resolved to refer to the said bill of law to the Ministerial Committee for Legal affairs.
And in view of the significance of availability y of economic information data and statistics and updating them as a priority in compilation of reports on economic, commercial, industrial and investment relations and proper appraisal thereof, which makes indices of monitoring and analyzing such correlations a genuine reflectance of reality.
Upon perusal of the memorandum submitted for this purpose from the Minister of Industry and Commerce, the Cabinet resolved to task the Interior Ministry which is the Ministry in charge of the Central Informatics Organization to coordinate and communicate with the relevant competent bodies in order to ensure that data and information are derived by the said organization from the relevant bodies, updated and audited as a top priority.
The Cabinet also passed the following resolutions regarding memoranda included in the agenda of the Cabinet meeting and endorsed the hosting by the Kingdom of Bahrain for the 22nd session of the general conference of the Arab Education Bureau scheduled to be hosted in the Kingdom next October 2012.
Cabinet also endorsed a proposal submitted from the House of Representatives regarding the construction of Al-Dour Park in the Southern Governorate.
The Cabinet approved two proposals submitted from the House of Representatives regarding allocation of a budget ahead of the rainy season and regarding increasing the budget for rain-proof insulators.
The Cabinet endorsed a proposal submitted from the House of Representatives regarding the changing of Al-Jesrah Village into a modular village.
The Cabinet endorsed a proposal regarding volunteers in the Ministry of Education and other ministries.
The Cabinet endorsed a proposal submitted from the House of Representatives regarding the construction of a local market in Hamad Town.
The Cabinet finally endorsed a proposal submitted from the House of Representatives regarding a National Archives Home.