Manama : Export Bahrain, the national export development and internationalization support entity, is celebrating four years of driving the Kingdom’s mission to export Bahrain to the world, playing a central role in boosting export-driven growth by connecting businesses with partners from around the globe and enabling them to thrive by accessing international markets and contributing to economic prosperity in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Export Bahrain’s remarkable 4 years have been punctuated by an unprecedented series of milestones.
Bahrain based businesses have been able to ramp up their export endeavors on a larger scale with Export Bahrain’s tailor-made services and solutions, and as such, Export Bahrain has facilitated over $369 million in export value through Bahrain-based businesses across various economic sectors since its inception in 2018, covering over 65 unique product and service categories to over 68 markets worldwide, 9 of which have only been entered this year alone for the first time, including Cyprus, Algeria, Yemen, Nigeria, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Bosnia, Georgia, and Taiwan. This year, Export Bahrain reinforced and increased export opportunities for current and potential exporters, which included over 11% of exporters who entered new markets, where over 10% represented service exports, and more than 32% of Export Bahrain customers are women entrepreneurs.
Since its inception, Export Bahrain has signed more than 40 partnership agreements with local and international partners, demonstrating its unwavering commitment to putting local exporters on the global trade map.
Building on these achievements, Export Bahrain has been able to gain global recognition by winning 7 prestigious global business awards since its inception, most notably the HRH Princess Sabeeka Bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa Award for Bahraini Women Advancement in the private sector (small enterprises) category, ‘Best SME Export Development Solutions – MENA 2022’ by UK based Capital Finance International, and ‘Most Innovative Export Platform Bahrain 2022’ by the International Business Magazine Award.
Commenting on this occasion, Abdulla bin Adel Fakhro, Minister of Industry and Commerce, stated: “Today, Export Bahrain marks four years since its inception. The national entity continues to drive the growth of businesses from across the Kingdom of Bahrain and assist them in establishing themselves abroad through unbounded support, with over $369 million achieved in export value. Export Bahrain will continue to introduce and enhance a diversified portfolio of services and solutions that will accelerate the growth of exports with a drive to build on value, support economic growth, fuel innovation and reinforce the Kingdom of Bahrain’s position as a strategic global export hub by being a solution innovator through increasing efficiency of export solutions.”
Safa Sharif Abdulkhaliq, Chief Executive Officer of Export Bahrain, stated: “Celebrating Export Bahrain’s 4th anniversary is a celebration for all who have been a part of our journey through all those years. We are extremely grateful to all our partners and customers, with whom we have proudly worked side-by-side as we continually endeavor to assist them and support their missions. We are currently working on announcing other major initiatives with the aim of building a repertoire of different types of solutions and offerings to enable exporters to make that journey into the area of exporting their products and services much easier. We look forward to reaching new milestones and assisting more customers in the years to come.”