On March 29, in Manama, CLDP led a Roundtable in close coordination with the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), the National Assembly, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC), AmCham Bahrain, and other key private sector stakeholders to discuss proposed insolvency legislation and its effect on small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Bahrain. US Ambassador William Roebuck provided opening remarks and noted CLDP's accomplishments in Bahrain over the past 10 years, including significant improvements to Bahrain's World Bank Doing Business rankings as a direct result of CLDPs work. The Ambassador noted that from 2016-2017, Bahrain improved by 70 positions on the "starting a business" indicator rankings, i.e. business registration laws, a main area of focus for CLDP’s technical assistance.  

Most importantly, the Roundtable offered an interactive forum for stakeholders to discuss key areas of concern as they related to the draft law, including benefits to SMEs in Bahrain, directly with civil service and elected government officials. By the conclusion of the Roundtable, all parties agreed that they were interested in seeing implementation of a new insolvency law reflecting international best practice and provided a list of recommendations to be considered during the drafting process. Furthermore, following the conclusion of the Roundtable, US Embassy Manama and BCCI put out a joint press release in support of the draft law, which was extensively covered by news media.